
Classic AK^ 
Book/ K? K 

Copyright^ : 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSnv 







MRS. ELIZABETH KRECKER. 



Beautiful Life of 
Mrs. Elizabeth Krecker 



By 
MISS ADA MARIE KRECKER 



w 

••••••• 



1905 

WOMAN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF THE 

UNITED EVANGELICAL CHURCH 

HARRISBURG, PA. 



LIBRARY of OC^GRESS 
Twu Copies deceive* 

JAN 31 1905 

Coyyrijiiii £.ntry 
CUSS ** AAC Moj j 
COPY 6. 



3V3JD5 



Copyright, 1904, 

by the 

Woman's Missionary Society 

of the 

United Evangelical Church. 

Published, 1905. 



til 



TO THE MANY FRIENDS 
OF 

WHO CHERISH HER MEMORY, 

THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS 

LOVINGLY INSCRIBED. 



Preface 



This little volume — the biography of Mrs. Elizabeth 
Krecker, President of the Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety of the United Evangelical Church, and General 
Organizer of Woman's Missionary Societies, presents 
itself to the members of our church and especially to 
the women of the Missionary Society, making no plea 
for itself — the beautiful story of a beautiful, saintly 
life, will, we are sure, commend it to all its readers. 

The little book, the material of which has been gath- 
ered from many sources and woven into her life's 
story by the skillful hand of a loving and faithful 
daughter, will be warmly welcomed by not only the 
women of the church who were associated with her 
in the work of the Woman's Missionary ^Society, but 
many who knew her who are not members of the 
church will be glad to read the connected history of 
her influential and beautiful life. 

It is not only a sweet spirited, consecrated Christian 
woman that is seen in these pages but a grand, capable, 
aggressive, successful worker and leader in the Lord's 
army as well. She was a pioneer missionary from our 
church to a foreign land, — to Japan. The name had 
a deep meaning to her, it was for Japan her efforts 
were put forth, her prayers offered, it was there a great 
sorrow came to her life. Japan's soil drank her widowed 
tears and received the precious body of her best be- 
loved. 

Returning from abroad at a critical time in her 
church's history, she took up with rare grace and un- 
expected resources, the leadership of the Woman's 



6 Preface. 

Missionary forces and organized and led them on to a 
most successful issue. 

Not with an imperious but a gentle spirit, relying 
on the strong hand of her God, she so wrought that 
when her work was finished she had won the sincere 
and spontaneous tribute of a church's praise. 

The following words written by one who knew her, 
will express the estimate: — To the missionary cause 
Mrs. Krecker gave the best she had to offer — her time, 
the benefit of her experience and much of her means — 
all with a cheerful heart. She was never happier than 
when solving problems for the cause she loved so well 
— how to reach the uninterested and how to help the 
willing ones to a better knowledge of the work. 

Advancd in thought, she perceived a mission could 
be planted in China— -which was done. 

We have had the benefit of the wisdom and the 
tenderest thoughts of Mrs. Krecker. Upon us rests 
the rseponsibility of carrying on the work. It remains 
for each to do her best, and only her best. 

To two of the members of the Executive Committee 
of the Worhan's Missionary Society, we are largely 
indebted for the publication of this book, they having 
entire charge of the manuscript after it left the hands 
of the writer. 



Contents. 



CHAPTER I. 
A Soul Beautiful, 9 

CHAPTER II. 
*• Little Lizzie/ ' 18 

CHAPTER III. 
With Dr. Krecker in Japan, 32 

CHAPTER IV. 
V Mutterchen," 67 

CHAPTER V. 
fi The Frances Willard of Our Woman's Missionary Society," 84 

CHAPTER VI. 
Up to the Beautiful City of Light, 127 

CHAPTER VII. 
Though Being Dead She Yet Speaketh, 152 

APPENDIX. 

Mrs. Krecker's Last Letters to the Woman's Board of 

Missions, 166 

The Woman's Missionary Society at Camp-Meetings, .... 168 

President's Annual Address, 1895, 174 

President's Annual Address, 1896, 184 

President's Annual Address, 1898, 197 

President's Annual Address, 1902, 221 



CHAPTER I. 

A SOUL BEAUTIFUL. 

'A sweet, attractive kind of grace, a full assurance 
"Your face is a benediction to me." 
"Every one here speaks of her beautiful face." 
"It would seem that these lines: 

giv'n by looks 
'Continual comfort in a face, the lineaments of 
Gospel books/ 

must have been suggested by a face very like unto 
hers." 

"If ever I knew a woman whose face clearly 
mirrored the beautiful soul that dwelt within — that 
face was your mother's." 

"Hers was a rarely beautiful soul." 

"She was my idea of Solomon's model woman 
in the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs. 

"She was my ideal woman." 

"I think I gave her a sort of worship from afar." 

With glowing, golden words such as these which 
are culled fairly at haphazard from many others as 
handsome and as fervent, all seemed to enter into 
the rare presence of Mrs. Krecker, delighting from 
the first moment in the lovely person and mien 
whose comeliness of flesh and feature were illumined 
and transfigured by the inawrdly fair, and whose 
grace and winsomeness seemed under the spell of 
some spiritual enchantment, instantly ushering the 

9 



io Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

spectator into the chambers of a fine spirit whereof 
the exterior was but the alluring reflection. 

"Your face is a benediction to me," Dr. Hudson 
Taylor, the celebrated missionary, said, as he pre- 
sented himself without ceremonious introduction 
to the unusually beautiful and charming little wo- 
man near him whose sweet dignity was the sweeter 
for its suggestion of shyness and whose affability 
lost no cordiality for its frank reticence. 

Characteristically coy was Mrs. Krecker's man- 
ner as she repeated this distinguished tribute with 
native and pretty simplicity to her daughter. "Yes, 
compliments are something I get plenty of," she 
said. During another cozy chat with the same 
daughter on the same topic she observed, "I think 
it is because I study how to please." 

Studying how to please and succeeding in pleas- 
ing as Mrs. Krecker studied and succeeded is a 
sweet art which needs gentle abandon of self in 
others and a heart quite consecrated to its task of 
growing in grace; of pleasing man by being pleas- 
ing to God. "I think," says a precious friend, "that 
the prevailing sentiment in all Mrs. Krecker's let- 
ters was the desire to know God's will so that she 
might learn to do it." 

It was this longing to render her soul as a sweet 
sacrifice unto the Lord and to have it wholly pleasing 
to Him that glorified all her sweet and lovely words 
and deeds and ways. For sweet and lovely they ail 
were with a gentleness and amiability, all pervasive 
and quite perfect, characterizing every expression 
of her face and each word and movemnt. 



A Soul Beautiful n 

To these as elements of her winsome personality, 
must bee added her singularly felicitous speech 
which illustrated Solomon's apples of gold in pic- 
tures of silver, ever fitly chosen to express the heart's 
sincerity and the faithful mental judgment while 
even under very critical circumstances, offering 
to the listener's ear nothing that would create dis- 
harmony. This was perhaps the easier for her 
because, while alert to see and enojy and speak of 
the merits of others and vividly to appreciate every 
kindness and favor, her mind instinctively blinded 
itself to shortcomings and slights and injuries; or, 
if these could not be veiled, regarded them with an 
untainted forgiveness which cherished no resent- 
ment to those who wittingly or unwittingly wound- 
ed, and could still admire their commendable traits. 

A bright and beloved niece relates, "One thing 
that made a vivid and lasting impression on my mind 
while a young lady, occurred while Aunt Elizabeth 
was paying us a visit. I came into our home from 
teaching public school, and being thoroughly dis- 
gusted with a certain individual, I said to Aunt 
Elizabeth, 'Oh, he's "no good." ' Then Aunt Eliz- 
abeth came close to me and said so gently, 'Now, my 
dear Myra, never say of any one that they are "no 
good," for there is some good, some spark of the 
divine in every being, though it may not yet have 
been discovered. It is our duty and privilege to 
seek for the good in people and do what we can to 
aid them in developing the good. We should follow 
Frances Willard's advice: "Let us tell all the good 
things we may, and think as little evil as we can, 



12 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

that we may have little to tell but good, and then 
let us tell it out and keep on telling it." Will you 
try, my dear? She did that so sweetly I never shall 
forget it. and what's more, I tried as never before 
to seek for the good in people's lives and was so 
much happier for it." 

Perhaps only those who knew her intimately can 
apprehend the solicitude with which this sweet and 
gentle lady, who studied how to please God and 
man, shielded others from gossip and prevented 
scandal from going any further through her instru- 
mentality. There were times when those near and 
dear to her had to go hundreds of miles to hear 
what she would not repeat of near-by happenings. 

With this happy insight for the bright and beauti- 
ful in character came a twin perception of the good 
in events, a rosy and tranquil optimism born of 
faith that all things work together for good to them 
that love the Lord. Or, if worries gnawed at her 
heart they were effectually screened by the happy 
light kept always aglow on her face. So that few 
indeed penetrated to the troubled spirit within. 

But illuminating all her charming virtues like an 
aureole round her soul was the divine light of her 
spirituality. Her heart revelled in high meditations 
and found sweetest refreshment in prayer. "I do 
not know of an address made by her at any time in 
which she did not emphasize the importance of 
prayer, and all through her public work she evi- 
denced her own complete and perfect submission 
to the Father's will. After she was no longer able 
to engage actively in the Woman's Missionary So- 



A Soul Beautiful. 13 

ciety work, her prayer went up continually for the 
success of this undertaking so dear to her heart and 
in which she was such an important factor. At 
one time she wrote, 'Daily in the morning hour 
among- those upon whom I ask God's blessing are 
our Woman's Missionary Society workers.' " 

Her favorite religious readings pertained to the 
"Higher Christian Life. — such as Andrew Murray's, 
F.B.Meyers, Upham's, Mrs. Phcebe Palmer's, Anna 
Shipton's, Frances Havergal's, and Dr. Boardman's, 
particularly Upham's and Murray's. 

Intellectually she was gifted with a wide-awake, 
eager mentality which thirsted for knowledge, de- 
lighted in intellectual problems and feasted on the 
solidest sort of reading. Intricate mathematical 
problems she enjoyed working out quite alone, and 
while in Japan ambitiously carried her studies be- 
yond the Japanese into an ardent quest of the curi- 
ous and tantalizing Chinese characters. When Mr. 
W. J. White published a book on the hieroglyphics 
of the Celestial Empire, he presented her with a 
copy. 

Lester F. Ward's "Pure Sociology," which many 
a college bred woman finds dry and deep, she relish- 
ed with zest, particularly his analysis of the "in- 
stinct for workmanship," the history of the devel- 
opment of man's capacity for labor and the story 
of woman's economic descent and ascent. On 
reading Charlotte Perkins Oilman's "Woman and 
Economics," she wrote home: "It is very interest- 
ing and suggestive. I want every one of you people 
at home to read it. If I knew vou wouldn't buv 



14 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

it, I would buy it and send it home." This breadth 
of mental grasp impelled her to appreciate truth 
wherever found and to enjoy all writers and speak- 
ers albeit of widely variant views, from whom she 
could receive light, thus ever enlarging her horizon. 

This expanding magnitude of view is best known 
to those who knew her best, to those to whom she 
gave of herself the most freely, and, as is some- 
what notable, it was reinforced with her years, so 
that there seemed to be no effort for the woman in 
her fifties to cast aside traditional ideas long enter- 
tained when sound reason proved them untenable. 
"New" and "modern" held no alarms for her mind 
so long as they expressed a nearer approach to the 
live fact. Her son, Mr. Preston Stewart Krecker, 
of New York City, alludes to her "wide range of 
sympathies especially with woman's progress. You 
know how much broader she was than any one 
church, how no sectarian narrowness restricted her 
view of life and society. Her own mission work 
with which she was immediately connected interested 
her most of course, but all mission work and all 
church work interested her. But she was much 
broader than this. All work aiming at the uplifting 
of woman, and all looking to betterment of human- 
ity did as well." 

Human advancement in its finest and loftiest 
sense was verily Mrs. Krecker's watchword and in 
all its phases found her its champion. In woman's 
progress she was with the latest viewpoint, looking 
forward to a world which neither man nor woman 
dominated, but where both lived and worked togeth- 



A Soul Beautiful 15 

er in harmony as genuine companions. A topic of 
practical interest was personal health and hygiene 
where she again was with the van guard of thought, 
and appreciated and practiced recent theories on 
food, dress and other conditions of daily bodily 
existence. All that interests advanced human be- 
ings interested Mrs. Krecker, and it was with the 
broadest, the most tolerant and the most far-sight- 
ed that she linked her sympathies. In nothing was 
she narrow. 

Perhaps even more characteristic than Mrs. 
Krecker' s lavish breadth of mind was her mental 
balance, the sturdy common sense, the judgment 
sound and non-commital, the vivid sense of the log- 
ical, the acute foresightedness, the fineness in deal- 
ing with problems and people, the robust propensity 
to avoid extremes and pursue the golden mean of 
the middle path, which distinguished all her daily 
walk and conversation. While teachable, open- 
minded, generous, impressible, pliant, in thought 
and conduct, Mrs. Krecker was usually mistress of 
a matter. 

"With all her excellencies it is to be borne in 
mind that she possessed a great deal of diffidence, 
and she did not seem more than half aware of her 

gifts-" 

As a woman pure and simple, Mrs. Krecker loved 
all that the normal woman loves, in home and soci- 
ety. She enjoyed people as well as her solitude 
and all the good things of life and was apt in adapt- 
ing herself to all sorts of conditions or persons 
and conditions, lending herself to the require- 



1 6 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ments of the moment. She was fond of 
all delicate personal belongings, $nd some- 
times when seeing a handsome toilette would 
remark that "that was the sort of clothes she had 
always thought she would like to wear." Tasteful 
simplicity and immaculate neatness distinguished 
her attire, and, as an old-time friend observed to a 
daughter, after commenting pleasantly on a new 
frock of Mrs. Krecker's, "But then your mother al- 
ways looks nice." Mrs. Krecker was dainty and 
painstaking and neat to an extreme degree of nicetv 
in all the details of housekeeping, darned stockings 
as they are rarely seen darned, and sewed with such 
trim care that in the days when she gave more time 
to housewifely accomplishments, her friends often 
begged her to help them with some particularly 
fastidious piece of handiwork. 

Finally, she was a very careful cook. Her daugh- 
ter, Marguerite, Mrs. Ralph Waterman Vincent, of 
East Orange, New Jersey, relates that her mother- 
in-law "frequently speaks of her (Mrs. Krecker's) 
success in preserving fruit in its various forms. A 

Mrs. one summer got her recipe for canning 

plums, they were so well put up; and Mrs. 

is considered very excellent in such matters." 

"As a wife," continues Mrs. Vincent, "she was 
deeply interested in all that concerned her husband, 
and always thought first what was most beneficial 
for the larger development of his character, cheer- 
fully sacrificing everything for that end." To this 
it may be supplemented that while depending on 
him with a reliance that was sweet and dear to her, 



A Soul Beautiful lj 

she was his own wise counsellor, whose judgments 
he habitually consulted on matters large and small. 

IMrs. Jacob Hartzler, who was Mrs. Krecker's 
closest friend in Japan, and held ever in loving 
regard, termed her "A model wife and a fond 
mother. She always made home happy. She was 
wise as well as good, and very helpful to her ex- 
cellent husband in his work for God. She never lost 
signt of the spiritual and eternal welfare of her 
children. The death of her husband was a deep 
bereavement, but her fortitude springing from God, 
made her strong, and enabled her to bear up nobly 
under the most trying circumstances, and to accom- 
plish much for the Master. On the day of her 
precious husband's departure for his heavenly home, 
one of the children said, 'What a precious legacy 
our father left us !' What these dear children then 
said of their sainted father they can now say of 
their sainted mother also. What a debt of grati- 
tude they owe their sainted parents !" 

)It would be remote from any desire of Mrs. 
Krecker's to have her portrait painted as ideal. But 
rather than look for any blemishes in a soul so 
nearly faultless, it may not be amiss to recall her 
own comments on a photograph. After alluding 
to its imperfection she concluded with, "But why 
speak of the defects ? you can see them for yourself/' 
Human Mrs. Krecker was, yet withal so permeated 
with the divine that to see her seemed always "to 
praise her," and "to know her was to love her." 



CHAPTER II 



"UTTUS UZZIK/' 



It was among Pennsylvania's gardens of fair and 
fertile field and happy valley, on the first day of 
August, Eighteen Hundred and Forty-four, that 
Elizabeth Landis Oberholtzer was born, a fit flow- 
er for the fair gardens in which she blossomed, "a 
true picture from Nature/' as her school-master 
said, "of innocence, purity, beauty and loveliness." 

There still rests on the brow of a low hill off the 
main road of the original Terre Hill, Lancaster 
County, Pennsylvania, a rambling old house with 
a famous big cherry tree near by and apple orchards 
sloping off to the fields. It stood on one of eight 
goodly farms stretching out fraternally side by side, 
the estates of eight brothers, gifts of their father, 
Isaac Martin Oberholtzer, whose Huguenot ances- 
tor had come with his brother from the Alsatian 
Mountains, Switzerland, early in the eighteenth 
century to escape the persecution that burned their 
near kinfolk at the stake at Zurich. 

In the village round which these and other farms 
clustered, an elderly school-master was 'Squire, — 
Elizabeth Oberholtzer's maternal grandfather, 
'Squire Landis, widely known for his gentle charac- 
ter, his delicately chiseled face, his intelligent mind 
and his liberal views. All these admirable qualities 
he had transmitted to his lovely daughter, Mary, 

18 




BIRTHPLACE OF MRS. KRECKER. 



"'Little Lizzie." 19 

wife of Isaac Oberholtzer, "a beautiful woman or 
fine cut features and splendid form, while her genial 
nature and amiable disposition endeared her to all 
with whom she became associated. ,, She is still 
remembered for her pretty white dresses, which 
were an exceptional daintiness for the wife of a 
farmer, and for her clever horsewomanship, an un- 
usual accomplishment in the simple village. "She 
was created in too fine a mould to endure all the 
labors, trials and care of this life, and died at an 
early age, leaving eight little children. Elizabeth 
was three years old and perhaps something of a 
pet with her father. How he set her on his knee 
beside the stov.e to teach her the letters wrought in 
iron, and how at the age of three, through his 
tutelage, she had learned to spell out the texts in 
his Bible, she long after recalled. She remembered, 
too, that he loved to gather the whole famliy to see 
anything special about the farm or home which he 
had accomplished, and, that as a lay minister he was 
much in demand in the vicinity, particularly at 
funeral ceremonies where exceptionally able dis- 
courses were wanted to appeal to those who might 
otherwise never hear a sermon. 

This little pet and her younger sister, Emmeline, 
wife of Dr. B. H. Miller, of Mohns Store, Pennsyl- 
vania, were named by "Old Mother Kinzer," of 
Terre Hill, "after some great personages/' as she 
relates, adding in pleased reminiscence of her prot- 
eges, that "Elizabeth and Emmeline were the most 
beautiful girls in that section and were known as the 
belles of the village/' 



20 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

But long ere celebrity as a belle was hers, Eliza- 
beth had become famous in her quiet little farm cir- 
cle as being always "very helpful and kind even 
when but a mere child." At one time Mrs. Miller 
tells that "After mother's death Elizabeth took the 
broom and wanted to sweep when the house-keeper 
sent her away saying, 'You can not sweep.' Eliza- 
beth felt very much disappointed, for she felt she 
should have been given a trial; she was eager to 
learn how to do things well. She was very fond 
of visiting Aunt Betsy Watts; Cousin Elizabeth 
Watts would invite some little girls, cousins and 
others, and teach them to sew; have a nice little 
party to make rugs or some fancy work or to sew 
carpet-rags, and Elizabeth was so delighted with 
what she learned and the kindness shown to her, 
that she never forgot it. I think Mr. Grove was her 
first school-teacher ; he used to carry Lizzie to school 
when she was only four years of age, and made 
quite a pet of his little school-girl, w T ho was a 
bright pupil. She always enjoyed going to Sunday- 
school and service and wished to join the church 
at eight years of age, while she taught a class in 
Sabbath-school while very young. In those days 
we did not mind winter's snow and slush, nor sum- 
mer's heat and rains, and as young girls we never 
missed a service unless we had to remain at home 
with the smaller children. What a regular attendant 
at church our father was !" 

Long years after when "Little Lizzie" re-visited 
the fond scenes of her childhood, she observed : "It 
seems to me the greatest blessing with which God 



"Little Lizzie." 21 

in His infinite goodness has favored me is pious 
parents, who early inculcated the doctrine of the 
religion of Jesus Christ into the minds and hearts of 
their children. All other blessings under the guid- 
ance of my heavenly Father center around this 
greatest of all. It is because I was born of pious 
parents, who early taught me to lisp the name of 
Jesus that I cannot remember when that sweet 
sound first reached my ear. And it is because my 
godly parents took me to Sabbath-school in my 
very infancy that I cannot remember when I first 
went to the Fairville Sunday-school, this Sunday- 
school which I consider the second greatest blessing 
with which, through the mercy of God, I have been 
blessed. 

"It is here, through one of my answers in the 
question-book, that I learned the important truth 
that without faith it is impossible to please God. 
And I not only learned that truth, but in connection 
with the precious truth that through faith in Jesus 
we have eternal life, it was indelibly impressed upon 
my mind and heart. And to-day I thank God for 
the faith I have in him ; for I believe he will cause 
all things to work together for good to those who 
love the Lord. And that sustaining promise 'I will 
never leave thee nor forsake thee' is inexpressibly 
precious to me, because I believe it. Another verse 
which was deeply engraved upon my mind and 
heart in this Sunday-school is 'God is the rewarder 
of all who diligently seek him/ 

"It was longer, and consequently harder to com 
mit to memory than some others. But while many 



22 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

other short ones have been forgotten, this one was 
firmly fixed in my memory. And it caused me to 
look to God for my reward, and an inexpressibly 
great blessing has this proved to me. Had I gone 
forth in the path which was plainly marked out for 
me, in the expectation of receiving my reward from 
men, how sad would have been the disappointments. 
He gives unmistakable evidence that he is pleased 
with their consecration to him and with the willing, 
though feeble efforts with which they may be able 
to win souls for his kingdom. 

"The first that I can remember about this Sun- 
day-school is when I was a member of Hannah 
Snader's German class, on the left side of the plat- 
form, in the basement of the old church. As that 
was the only available opportunity I have ever had 
of studying German, it is with gratitude that I re- 
member that class and Hannah's labor of love in 
the Sunday-school. After a time Maria Pliem was 
appointed our teacher. Her kindness, her pleas- 
ant manner and the interest manifested in her class 
will always be remembered with pleasure and profit. 

"It was during the time that she taught this class, 
that there was some rivalry between our class and a 
class of which the Rev. Amos Stirk was a member. 
If I remember correctly, the Rev. William Chime 
was also a member of that class. There were prizes 
offered to those who had answered the most ques- 
tions within a given time. Sometimes a member of 
their class would get the highest prize and again 
one of our class would get it. I still have a few 
books thus obtained, Hannah Moore and Leigh 



'Little Lizzie" 2 



o 



Richmond being the authors of the books. One is 
'The Annals of the Poor/ and the other 'The Dairy- 
man's Daughter.' It was through the reading of 
these books that I was first inspired to do good as 
well as to be good. It was through the influence 
of these books that I first received a desire to live 
for Jesus, to devote my life to his service and to win 
souls for his kingdom." 

Of these same early days, Mrs. Krecker's brother, 
William, of Sioux City, Iowa, says: "From her 
youth up she was a very thoughtful girl ; the whole 
atmosphere of her parental home was deeply reli- 
gious and severely unworldly; there was a strain 
of asceticism in the family, which while it did not 
destroy the native warmth of her nature, yet exerted 
a marked influence upon her character, and served 
to color some of her theological views ; it is not sur- 
prising that this impressible girl gave her heart to 
Jesus at an early age and united with the church, 
encouraged by a remark of the pastor, who said 
that they could 'use small stones as well as large 
ones in the walls of the building.' A knowledge of 
her talents and gifts, both of head and heart, sug- 
gests at once that she was destined to a career of 
more than usual force ; with a mind endowed as was 
Tiers, and a thirst for knowledge as she had, a girl 
will educate herself. 

A cousin of Mrs. Krecker's, Mrs. Sue L. Hain, 
remembers what a bright scholar and exceedingly 
pleasant girl she was even at the age of six years. 

Anna Kinzer Mcllvaine, of Philadelphia, a daugh- 
ter of the Mrs. Kinzer who gave Elizabeth her hand- 



24 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

some name, relates : "I found in this dear little girl, 
who was older than her years in sweet wisdom 
above the ordinary, a companion even in her child- 
hood which made up in a measure the loss of her 
sister to me. My brother was her teacher for sev- 
eral years, and one whom he took the most pro- 
found interest in, as she was a very bright scholar, 
and an exemplary Christian/' 

This brother, W. H. H. Kinzer, of Lancaster, 
school-mate and teacher and life-long friend of 
Mrs. Krecker, has kept green the memory of those 
long ago days of one of his "best friends and one 
of the best women that ever lived." 

"The families of Oberholtzers and Kinzers," he 
recalls, "lived on adjoining farms and were always 
on the most friendly terms. Their children grew 
up together, attended the same school, — shared in 
each other's joys and sorrows and thus lived in har- 
mony and sympathy for three generations. Now 
they are all gone and these once happy homes are 
occupied by strangers, and the old families are rest- 
ing in the cemeteries or living many miles away 
from the homes of their childhood. 

"Little Lizzie, as we always called her, was left, 
with her sisters, without a mother at an early age, 
just at the time when the loving care of a mother 
was most needed; however she had the good in- 
fluence of a Christian father, who was an exemplary 
man in his home, a father in the church, an intense 
worker and a close student of the Bible, a genial 
companion and a good friend. By following up the 
line of duty which meant much hard work it greatly 



"Little Lizzie" 25 

benefitted her physically, and she grew up in the 
bloom of health and learned the lessons of economy 
and industry which aided her in her success in 
later years. 

"I knew her when a little child and can remember 
as a school-mate, when for the first day she came to 
school. From her home on the hillside, near the 
school, she trudged along with her sister Annie to 
school. 

"Annie Oberholtzer was a loving companion of 
my sister Annie, now Mrs. Mcllvaine. They were 
of the same age and sat on the same seat together 
while at school. It was the best seat in the rear of 
the room and the highest one, where the biggest 
girls always sat. 

"These two big girls perched her on the high 
bench right between them, with her little feet dang- 
ling down half-way to the floor — a timid, smiling, 
bashful little girl of six years, with dimples and 
blushes sparkling on her rosy cheeks, for her 
cheeks w r ere always red as a rose. 

"After the first day at school Lizzie came pretty 
regularly in fair w 7 eather, and Annie Kinzer taught 
her to read before she was seven years old. She was 
considered too small for the dignified teacher of the 
school to bother with and waste his time. She how- 
ever soon developed unusual precocity and remark- 
able brightness for her age. By a certain law of in- 
heritance this child was a facsimile of her mother, 
and she inherited her noble virtues and Christian 
graces as well as her pleasant manners, cheerful dis- 
position and physical beauty, together with her 



26 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

father's intellectual faculties and earnest devotion 
to the work of the Master, to which he untiringly 
devoted his whole life. 

"Besides this, she was observant and discerning, 
ambitious and energetic, full of mirth and hope. 

"Her character was brightened and cultured much 
by her taking impressions from those with whom 
she associated who were older than herself in the 
school, the church, and in the social and literary 
world in which her associations were only limited 
by her opportunities. 

"It was at this time that Mental Arithmetic 
was introduced into the schools, and it was at this 
time that Lizzie developed a mathematical mind, 
mastering this study by readily grasping and solv- 
ing every problem in Brooks' Mental Arithmetic, 
in which there are so many intricate problems. It 
was here that the latent springs of her mind began 
to be disciplined for that intellectual progress that 
followed as her opportunities increased. 

"In the autumn of i860 it was my privilege to 
teach my first session in the old school-house; Liz- 
zie was then one of my pupils. She was the biggest 
girl in the school and was my brightest pupil. A 
model scholar in every respect, always cheerful and 
bright as a diamond, she ranked first in her class. 
After my school Lizzie, with two of her cousins, at- 
tended the Union Seminary. Of those days one of 
her school- fellows recalls : "My earliest recollections 
of dear Mrs. Krecker, are of the time when she first 
came to Union Seeminary, New Berlin, as a student. 
She was a sweet faced, rosy cheeked girl of seven- 



"Little Lizzie/' 2j 

teen. Her amiable disposition and womanly char- 
acter soon won, not only the respect, but the ad- 
miration and love of all her student companions. 
There was something in her manner and the expres- 
sion of her face which brought inspiration for a 
nobler and better life into the hearts of her friends, 
especially us girl students who were a little younger 
than herself. I became so much interested in her 
life that I followed her as she grew to womanhood 
with an earnest desire to see what her future would 
be. When my home was in Philadelphia, she came 
there a happy bride, passing through on her wedding 
trip. I saw then how beautifully her character had 
developed. How I rejoiced when she received her 
call to the mission field, and how my joy increased 
when I learned that she had been termed the best 
woman missionary in Japan. 

"On her return from the Sunrise Kingdom she 
stopped at our home for a few days, and then again 
I had the opportunity to witness the new and in- 
creased beauty of her sweet life. But in recent 
years, I was privileged to see more of this beautiful 
soul life during her occasional visits to our home, 
as we conversed about the missionary work in its 
different phases. Her spirit of humility and gentle- 
ness were very remarkable, and with every visit my 
admiration and love for her increased, while I was 
truly grateful for the good impressions which she 
made upon the different members of our family/' 

After the seminary student days came a few years , 
with her brothers in Indiana and Illinois. Dr. D. L. 
Oberholzer, of Logansport, Illinois, pictures her at 



28 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

this time as "comely in form and feature ; a devoted, 
active Christian young woman, gentle, modest, un- 
selfish, kind and courteous. Rev. B. F. Vincent, 
brother to Bishop J. H. Vincent, was our pastor at 
Lockport, Illinois, and conducted a "Palestine 
Class/' consisting of a course of study of the Holy 
Land and its people. Elizabeth was an active, in- 
terested member of this class and a good friend 
of Mr. Vincent." 

One year she taught school on the prairies. Her 
brother, Levi, now of Russel, Kansas, remembers 
that "One morning, just as she got to the school- 
house, one of her little pupils came running to meet 
her with her clothes on fire, and in that emergency 
she showed much presence of mind by calmly telling 
the little girl to merely lie down and she took her 
and rolled her over and over on the ground, and in 
that way put out the fire without much injury, save 
a little burning of Elizabeth's hands." 

"This was *he gayest time of her life," says Mr. 
Kinzer, "and she enjoyed many pleasures, and en- 
tertained and was entertained by many friends. She 
was a brilliant young lady, just out of her teens, and 
had many friends and little care or worry. Often 
she went with sleighing parties many miles across 
the prairies and she enjoyed many social gatherings. 

"At one time she was so enraptured with her gay 
and pleasant life in the West, that it seemed that 
the attractions there would make her a Western 
woman for life, but the love of home, of kindred 
and her old friends in the East, and the scenes of 
her childhood and their sacred associations, changed 



"Little Lizzie." 29 

her mind and turned her thoughts homeward, so 
that in the autumn of 1864 she returned to her old 
home. She then taught school at Hinkletown, in 
1864 and 1865, and the next fall she was a teacher 
at Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, two miles from her 
home. It was while teaching this last school term 
that she was engaged to Dr. Krecker, to whom she 
was married in the spring of 1867 ." 

It was an epoch-making afternoon in 1864, after 
Elizabeth's return to Terre Hill, that a neighbor 
asked her to tea to meet Dr. Krecker, son of the 
village minister, and a young naval surgeon home 
on a furlough. After Admiral Farragut's capture 
of Mobile, where, under a shower of bullets from the 
enemy, he had passed from ship to ship in a small 
boat tending the injured, amputating limbs, bind- 
ing up wounds, and whence he had written his 
father: "A surgeon must simply do his duty and 
fear no danger, but trust in God." When Dr. Kreck- 
er was graduated at Philadelphia, his medical in- 
structors had urged him to practice in a city, "for," 
said they, "a little town would be too small to hold 
you." He was not only clever in his work and pas- 
sionately devoted thereto, but a man of acute sen- 
sibilities, keen perceptions, sound judgment, and 
tireless energies, jolly, alert in all his movements, 
and good company anywhere and everywhere.. He 
sang and played on his guitar, and doubtless had an 
irresistible fund of war stories for the young ladies 
who lionized him this afternoon; and when in the 
evening he escorted home sweet Lizzie Oberholtzer 
and turned the lane to wend his way toward the 



30 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

village, perhaps he did not surmise that she was 
telling her sister of the day's adventure, saying, "If 
Dr. Krecker will ask me to marry him, I'll say 
'yes.' " 

Not knowing that capitulation had already been 
made, he walked the floor the night through, as he 
later confessed, planning how he could win his 
maid, even when a continent must soon lie betw r een 
them. Perhaps the young surgeon's knack of writ- 
ing a chatty, graceful and altogether entertaining 
letter, studded with clever descriptions of people, 
places and happenings, stood him in good stead to 
bridge the distance. At all events, entertaining, 
chatty and graceful letters, still in existence, reached 
the fair school-ma'am of Terre Hill in voluminous 
numbers and sizes, and in time the doctor came too, 
and not long after a pretty little wedding. That 
was April, 1867. The bride was dressed in a sheer 
white frock, which she and her sister had delicately 
tucked by hand, and which, in another form, has 
survived to the present day. 

Another bridal gown was a brown-figured silk, 
garnished with silk fringe, worn for the wedding 
photograph, wherein the bride is seen sitting with 
ineffable contentment beside her husband. She trav- 
eled away on her w T edding trip to Philadelphia in a 
lavender dress edged with narrow lace, which was 
singularly becoming to her etherially fair com- 
plexion, blue-grey eyes, and soft fine hair of a rare 
light gold brown, which in the sunlight showed the 
red tinge loved by artists, and a large leghorn hat 



"Little Lizzie." 31 

adorned with flowers and tied with slender black 
velvet streamers under her pretty face. 

The month of honeyed bliss was largely spent by 
the doctor in delightedly exhibiting his beautiful 
bride to his kinsfolk scattered through and near 
Philadelphia, and of whom was a youth who then 
and ever after spoke of his new cousin as the "lady 
with the heavenly smile." But these few weeks 
of journeying and sight-seeing were after all only 
the beginning of honeymoon days. Dr. and Mrs. 
Krecker's honeymoon lasted sixteen years. 



CHAPTER III. 

WITH DR. KRECKER JN JAPAN. 

"I shall never forget a 'God bless you' which she 
breathed as I, when a little girl in our Sabbath- 
school, kissed her good-bye upon her departure for 
Japan." A young matron of Lebanon, Pennsylva- 
nia, recalls this pretty incident of the autumn of 
1876; and it requires only the memory of any adieu 
spoken by Mrs. Krecker, ever genial and sympathetic 
and felicitous of manner, to bring to the eye the 
spectacle of the lovely lady bending her fair young 
face and luminous eyes over the flaxen-haired, blue- 
eyed, rosy little Sunday-school scholar who had 
come with many others with loving, memorable 
farewells, to Dr. and Mrs. Krecker. 

Nine years wed, parents of three children, and 
for the past few years since the Doctor's retire- 
ment from the navy, residents of Lebanon, famous 
for its mills and mines, the Coleman millions and 
yet greater riches of landscape, Dr. and Mrs. 
Krecker had evolved through the struggles of a 
young practitioner into the solid, easeful prosperity 
of a thoroughly successful physician, whose pros- 
pects provided their brightest and best, when now 
had come a quick change in the tide of their affairs. 
Within a half dozen months the face of their earth 
had changed. A new life was before them. They 
were bound for Japan. 

3 2 




DR. FREDERICK KRECKER. 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 33 

jjust how and just why they were going to Japan 
Dr. Krecker has told in his graphic, sympathetic 
way: 

"I refer w r ith much diffidence to my own con- 
nection with this work," said he, in a public fare- 
well at Cleveland, en route to San Francisco, "and 
yet it appears to be required that I should give a 
little personal experience. Somewhat over two 
years ago I began to realize the importance of a 
more perfect consecration. Hardly knowing what 
counsels to follow, I resolved to seek the Lord to 
lead me by his Holy Spirit in the way which he 
would have me walk. Then first came the thought 
to my mind that if I would attain to such a state in 
Christ Jesus, the Lord would call me to the min- 
istry. For a long time I tried to cast it off as a 
temptation to obstruct my way. But again and 
again it pressed itself upon me, until finally, for the 
last year, there was not a waking hour in which it 
did not present itself to me in some form, until at 
length I resolved to give up all for Jesus if he re- 
quired it. After I had taken the step I often won- 
dered why, if the Lord had designed me for the 
ministry, I was not thus led earlier in life. Why 
were these years all so apparently wasted. The 
call came upon me as unexpectedly as it would 
perhaps to any before me. Innumerable mysterious 
leadings appeared to open to me and their weight 
almost to crush me, and I wondered whether, like 
Moses tending sheep away out in the desert forty 
years, I too had been led in such a roundabout way, 
for a greater work, and the call caused many deep, 
3 



34 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

earnest heart-searchings. Day by day was spent by 
my dear companion and myself in prayer and con- 
sultation over this matter, and, as we looked upon 
our little ones, and the denials and dangers that 
beset them, our hearts trembled within us, but to- 
day we praise the Lord who gives us grace to make 
even this offering for his glorious cause. In faith 
and trust we go forward with cheerful hearts, con- 
fiding all to his keeping, and praying for grace to 
follow as he leads." 

Fallow, unfruitful years, perhaps, Dr. Krecker 
might regard those at Lebanon as he viewed them 
from the vantage-point of a larger public life, yet 
they were rich in preparations of the soil to render 
it fertile in grace and good works for grander fu- 
ture harvests. 

It was in Lebanon that Dr. Krecker became a 
famous superintendent of the Sunday-school in 
the Eighth Street Mission, where Mrs. Krecker 
had a primary department of nearly, if not fully, 
one hundred pupils, and it was in the varied activ- 
ities of that mission whose pioneer members and 
comradeship were ever held in affectionate re- 
membrance by Dr. and Mrs. Krecker, that they 
developed and displayed their interest and zeal 
and ability in work for the church. 

Of the Lebanon era and its fruitage, Mrs. Vin- 
cent recalls: "Papa, in a few years time, got a 
very fine practice, which meant considerable more 
at that time, soon after the war, than now. Then 
suddenly to give it all up, to relinquish every cher- 
ished hope for poverty and privations — the sacrifice 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 35 

is almost greater than we can conceive. But it was 
done, and with no blare of trumpets. ,, 

En route for Japan with the young physician and 
his family were Miss Rachel Hudson, of Philadel- 
phia, sister to a favorite friend of Mrs. Krecker, 
and the Rev. A. Halmhuber, a young clergyman of 
Germany. 

As the little party passed overland to San Fran- 
cisco, the "bright scholar" of the Terre Hill school- 
master is to the fore. Throughout our journey 
thus far," her husband wrote home, "Mrs. Krecker 
has been our special guide, seeking information con- 
stantly and searching for objects of interest, fre- 
quently going out on the platform for this purpose, 
while the rest of us are busy taking notes for loved 
ones at home." 

And in another letter: "Shortly after leaving we 
had a heavy shower, and then a most magnificent 
sunset, over which Mrs. Krecker went into ecsta- 
cies. Beneath were long, high ranges of dark 
mountains, with heavy masses of dark clouds over- 
head, while between them the glorious sunlight was 
reflected in every shade of crimson and gold. 

"When we awoke next morning we were in the 
midst of a sandy desert, the sand in some places 
towering up mountains high, in others assuming 
every imaginable shape, many resembling tents, 
marquees, and immense monuments raised by hu- 
man hands. Presently the train stopped for break- 
fast, at Green River station, Wyoming Territory, 
the most deserted, forlorn-looking spot in America: 



36 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

we stepped out on an exploring expedition with 
the following result: 

"Breakfast of mutton hash, sour bread, bad coffee, 
tough steak, and dried potatoes, to be had at the 
Desert House for one dollar. Stepped into a res- 
taurant with this result: cup of coffee, 25 cents; 
slice of dried beef, two by three inches, 10 cents; 
slice of bread, three by four inches, 15 cents; one 
egg, 5 cents. It is said of a certain place that they 
lived by catching fish and skinning strangers. At 
Green River the fish are evidently dispensed with! 

"From here the road ascends rapidly and soon 
we are on a vast, sandy plain, dotted all over with 
little tufts of sage bush. The snow-clad Unitah 
Mountains, seventy miles to the south, with rich 
sky of blue, and gray and golden above, presented 
a beautiful panorama, even in the midst of the 
desolation. The peculiar effects of stormy weather 
and floods in the past, has carved the bluff lines 
into the most curious and fantastic forms — lofty 
domes and pinnacles, and fluted columns resem- 
bling some cathedral of olden time. Maggie jusc 
remarked, 'O mamma! there's one looks like a 
church, with three steeples and a nice little door.' 

"In 1870 a geological expedition, headed by Prof. 
Marsh, of Yale College, visited the 'Bad Lands/ 
and made a geological examination. They were 
accompanied by a small force of troops. Hour af- 
ter hour the party marched over burning sand 
hills, without rocks or trees or signs of water, while 
the thermometer stood at no degrees in the shade 
of the wagons. Finally, one of the soldiers, ex- 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 37 

hausted with heat and thirst, exclaimed, 'What did 
God Almighty make such as this for?' 'Why/ re- 
marked another more devout trooper, 'God made the 
country good enough, but it is this geology the 
professor talks about, that spoils it all/ 

"In looking about the car, I see Maggie has 
found her way to the other end and picked up an 
acquaintance with some little folks whom she is 
interesting, while Preston has found a seat by the 
side of Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jackson, editor of the 
Rocky Mountain Presbyterian, intently investigating 
the mysteries of Indian life from a series of illus- 
trations, and presently Ada is perched on the knee 
of the Pullman conductor and giving him an extract 
of her history." 

Of the voyage over the Pacific, Dr. Krecker says 
that: "On Wednesday, October 18th, after having 
spent four days very pleasantly in San Francisco, 
seeing the sights and receiving many kind attentions 
from our dear friends, accompanied by many mem- 
bers of our little flock in that city we wended our 
way to the wharf and took passage in the splendid 
steamer "Oceanic/' of the Occidental and Oriental 
Line, for the Sunrise Kingdom. 

"The sun shone beautifully after the storm of the 
night, and at noon we cast off and swung out into 
the bay, committing ourselves to him who rules 
the waves and holds the sea in the hollow of his 
hand. Taking places on the upper deck, we waved 
adieu to the warm-hearted little band on the pier 
until their salutes could no longer be distinguished 
in the dim distance, and then, as our noble ship 



38 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

rounded the front of the city, we had a fine view of 
its shipping and numerous fine buildings. Presently 
our attention was directed toward the ocean, which 
was now in view between the high portals of the 
"Golden Gate/' through which we had a fine pas- 
sage, and soon we were in blue water, out upon the 
bosom of the great Pacific. 

With the exception of the officers, the whole crew 
are Chinamen. They appear to be quite efficient, 
and as waiters they are certainly far superior in 
prompt, quiet attentiveness to the sometimes pom- 
pous genus we usually find filling this position. 
There are about twenty passengers in the first 
cabin, and nearly five hundred Chinese in the steer- 
age. 

"When we got outside we found the sea quite 
rough, with a strong wind blowing, which con- 
stantly increased, and by evening we had some sea- 
sick passengers. Up to the present time Mrs. Kreck- 
er suffered considerably in this respect, while the 
little folks have been lively as crickets all the time. 
It is amusing to see how they get along, their bod- 
ies at an angle of nearly 45 degrees to the deck; 
but then there is nothing like getting your sea legs 
on. They appear to be perfectly at home, and have 
plenty of friends. Maggie romps with the captain 
and is on particularly good terms with the steward 
and Chinamen in the pantry, which enables her to 
keep the little folks well supplied with apples, oran- 
ges and good things generally. The day after we 
sailed she came in, looking quite comical, as she 
said, 'Papa, Ohio/ Of course I could not under- 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 39 

stand, so she said, laughing, 'Why, papa, that's 
good-morning/ and I soon discovered that she, 
had introduceed herself to a Japanese gentleman 
among the passengers, and was trying to learn the 
language. 

"October 22nd, — our first Sabbath at sea. How 
our thoughts flew back to loved ones with whom 
we have so often mingled our voices in prayer and 
praise on this hallowed day. 

"Yesterday was Monday, October 30th, and now 
the chaplain insists that this is Wednesday morning, 
November 1st. We crossed the 180th meridian dur- 
ing the night, have only six days to our week, and 
are puzzling our brains to know how old we'll be 
when our next birthday comes round. 

November 13th. With an interval of one or two 
days we had constant, strong head winds, some- 
times increasing to perfect gales the past ten or 
twelve, each apparently more violent than the pre- 
ceding. The usual time of voyage, eighteen days, 
expired on the 6th, and we were still a thousand 
miles away, with no prospect of improvement. We 
would, perhaps, not be ready to admit we just de- 
lighted with so much rocking, but we did find we 
all got rather accustomed to it, and unless too vio- 
lent paid no attention to it. 

"Finally, yesterday afternoon, soon after finishing 
our Sunday-school lesson, land was reported in 
sight, and sure enough, through the dim, hazy dis- 
tance a barely perceptible, low outline was to be 
discerned, and we all felt reliveed, for it was known 
that our supply of coal was almost exhausted. By 



40 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ten o'clock we were rounding the light-house, and 
this morning, at 3 : 30, we came to anchor in front 
of Yokohama. After breakfast we all got into a 
sangpan and were sculled ashore, and soon found 
very comfortable quarters at a hotel, and within an 
hour were all mose delightfully surprised by a call 
from the Rev. Mr. Correll and his wife." 

In Mrs. Krecker's reports of the voyage, she said 
that, "Between San Francisco and Yokohama, al- 
though it is the longest voyage in the world without 
a rest, there is not much to be seen. However, one 
day's voyage out from San Francisco whales are 
seen, farther on porpoises and flying-fish, the latter 
being a beautiful creature. Sea-gulls are seen every 
day excepting during stormy weather. The peculi- 
arity about these is, that on the first day out white 
birds are seen, the rest of the voyage black or dark 
ones, until we come within one day's journey of 
Yokohama, when white birds again appear. 

"Hours were spent at a time in looking at the 
grandeur of a rough sea. It is intensely interesting 
to observe the majestic power and beauty of the 
great blue waves as they, rising like mountains, 
roll toward the ship and break, changing into differ- 
ent shades of blue and green, until they finally reach 
a snowy white. 

"After we had been out twenty-four days, on 
Sunday afternoon, the first land was seen. Now 
there was a great cheer all around. Our joy was 
heightened by having the captain assure us that we 
would be brought to our destination the next day. 

"On Monday morning, on awaking, the first thing 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 41 

we observed was that the great pulse of our ship 
had ceased its beating — the engine was no longer in 
motion. We concluded we must be in harbor, and 
hurrying on deck learned that the ship was an- 
chored, and we noticed large and numerous barks 
from diffeernt nations surrounding us. 

"Hundreds of Japanese junks, with their square, 
white sails against the blue sea, were seen in the 
distance, while tugs, from the hotels, private boats, 
and small craft of various kinds had come toward 
the Oceanic to take off her passengers and freight. 
All seemed so strange and bewildering that we 
hardly knew whether it was a dream or a reality. 
It caused little effort, however, for us to believe it 
to be a truth ,and we tried to collect our minds 
sufficiently to partake of some breakfast. We were 
then conducted to one of the tugs from a hotel, and 
after a ride of another mile were landed upon the 
beautiful shores of Japan, or Nihon, as it is known 
by the natives : Ni meaning sun, and hon, 'root/ or 
'rising/ hence the term, Sunrise Kingdom/' 

Yokohama Dr. Krecker described as "A finely 
located city on the Yeddo Bay, about twenty miles 
below the capital, with which it has communication 
by the bay, and by a well constructed railway. 

"The streets are kept scrupulously clean, scav- 
engers with brooms and baskets constantly being 
met, and I have seen them pick up paper, bits of 
wood and orange-peel, that we would hardly think 
of noticing. Several very large canals pass through 
the city, the sides of which are also walled up like 
the bay front. Large numbers of boats, propelled 



42 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

with sculls or poles, are constantly passing, carrying 
products from the interior and vice versa. 

"To the left of the city, as it is approached, is a 
very high bluff, on which nearly all the foreign 
residents live. It belongs to their concession, in ad- 
dition to the city proper, which it adjoins. Here 
are erected very comfortable houses, with neat 
grounds attached. At night the city is well lighted, 
and numerous lanterns are carried, and the sight as 
viewed from the bluff is most charming. 

"Just while writing this, we had the most severe 
shock of earthquake we have experienced since our 
arrival. There was the sound of heavy, rumbling 
noise, while the house shook and trembled, as we 
thought, very much ; doors and windows rattled and 
the walls creaked. One held the lamp, others ran 
to the door, and Maggie cried, "Oh, mamma! let's 
go back to America !" The motion was at first mod- 
erate and increased in violence, and lasted thirty 
seconds at a low estimate." 

"We are all delighted with the country of Japan," 
wrote Mrs. Krecker to a favorite niece. "The 
scenery is charming, we sometimes go out to the 
sea-coast about three miles from here. We have 
found some very nice sea shells. Last week, on 
Friday, our teacher was unwell and did not come, 
and we went to the seashore in the afternoon. We 
enjoyed it very much. We saw lots of plum trees 
full of blossoms. I suppose you have heard that we 
have a married man to do our cooking, washing and 
ironing? I think a great deal of all my servants, 
especially the cook seems to love to please. It seemed 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan, 43 

very strange when we first came here not knowing 
anything about the languege, but we are gradually 
learning to understand and speak a little. The fact 
that the written language is quite different from 
the spoken makes it very difficult to learn fast, and 
again, the language addressed to the lower class is 
quite different from the language spoken by the 
better class. 

"Maggie would have Cousin Allie know about the 
children's school. She is delighted with it. In the 
morning, right after family worship, they get ready 
for school, then they go out to the front door, run 
around the house, as they approach the back door, 
I ring the bell. When they enter I am greeted as 
their school teacher. Then they take their seats 
around the small table which represents their desk. 
We open school by reading a passage of Scripture, 
singing and a short prayer. Then they study their 
lessons, and when they need assistance they ask 
permission to call upon me for help. I hear them 
recite in proper order. In the meanwhile I put in 
as much Japanese as I can." 

With this letter the reader is wafted into Japa- 
nese life as Mrs. Krecker knew it, the interest in 
the sights and sounds of the new country, the stud) 
of Japanese, the management of the home, the 
teaching of her children. To this must be added 
her constant missionary work, beginning with her 
servants, ere she could well read the Bible verses 
she wished them to hear, and not stopping short of 
her teacher. 

"We commenced the study of the language in the 



44 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Japanese primer," she related to American friends. 
"After having gone through that we took the Gos- 
pel of Luke which had already been translated. 
The Bible was the book we intended to teach, and 
therefore we desired as soon as possible to become 
familiar with it in the native language. In addition 
to the study of the Gospel, we, with the aid of the 
teacher, soon commenced translating the story of 
the creation, as we were desirous to give that story 
in connection with the story of the Gospel. Our 
first learner was our cook. After having had a lesson 
prepared we read it and read it, until we became fa- 
miliar with it, then we talked it to him every day, 
until we realized that he understood the story. Finally 
we told him to invite some of his friends to the house 
on Sunday afternoon. Within a few months he 
had became a believer, and ever so remained. 

"About this time, early in 1877, Dr. Krecker 
wrote, "Two weeks ago, when our teacher came, on 
Monday morning, we thought we observed a change 
in his countenance, and my wife especially thought 
he looked so cheerful. It hardly occurred to us at 
that moment what might be the reason, and as it 
is so difficult for us to communicate together, he 
speaking no English at all, we said nothing at the 
time, but a day or two after, while I was away for 
a short time, my wife concluded to find out whether 
her thoughts were correct. She asked him whether 
he ever prayed to the true God. He misunderstood 
her, for he knelt down and prayed earnestly. 

"On further inquiry, he stated that every night 
for about a month he had been reading the Gospel 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan, 45 

(we had given him Luke, in Japanese), and the 
previous Sunday, he said, 'The Lord entered my 
heart abundantly/ his own words. "God and the 
Bible/ he said, 'have been my teachers.' They had 
quite a happy season together, and could hardly 
wait for my return, when we all rejoiced together. 
We feel that, although we cannot speak to this peo- 
ple, yet the Lord hears our prayers in their be- 
half, and himself is the teacher." 

It was in this first winter in Japan that Dr. and 
Mrs. Krecker had their first experience with a 
Japanese fire. The same week that Mrs. Krecker's 
letter was penned, he writes : 

"One night last week we were awakened by the 
deep sound of the fire-bell, and looking through the 
lattice-covered window, the bright sky gave evi- 
dence of a large fire. On going out I discovered 
that it was at the foot of the bluff, a short distance 
to the eastward of us. Its loud crackling could be 
distinctly heard, while the large sparks and cinders 
swept in a shower through the sky, driven along by 
the wind. At every step I met natives hurrying 
along with things which they were taking away 
for safety. 

"Reaching the edge of the bluff, I could see right 
down into the burning mass. A large number of 
little Japanese homes were in the flames, and for 
a time the fire continued spreading in every direc- 
tion. What little wind there was, however, fortu- 
nately carried it nearly directly toward the bluff, 
along the face of which the sparks ascended as up 
a great chimney. Gradually it extended to the 



46 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krcckcr. 

westward, and I decided to return home, toward 
which it was gaining. Before long the sparks which 
had passed below us commenced coming directly 
over us, and we found it advisable to station a 
man on the roof, with water in readiness. Generally 
the sparks passed high up and away off to the rear, 
but occasionally they fell in showers, pattering on 
the dry grass and leaves in the yard like the sound 
of a commencing heavy shower. After about two 
hours the worst was over, and we felt greatly re- 
lieved. It is said it was the work of incendiaries. 
About two hundred and fifty houses were destroyed, 
and but one person, a sick woman, is said to have 
been burned. 

Next morning, the streets and vacant lots near 
by, were filled with families camping out, but lively 
and making the best of circumstances. At the scene 
of destruction the fire had made clean work. All 
frame buildings, without cellars or foundation 
stones, leave nothing but a small pile of ashes ; and 
the workmen were busy cleaning these away and 
making arrangements to put up new buildings. 
They were laughing and cheerful as if it were a 
mere trifle. At different places lines were drawn 
and little boards with Japanese characters, indicat- 
ing ownership of ground, were stuck up, while here 
and there were little groups gathered around fires 
and eating their rice, waiting until shelter was pro- 
vided. The actual suffering, however, is not neai 
so great as it would be in America. 

"Very few of the common people own their own 
homes, and if they get their mats and comforts out, 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 47 

there is not much left to burn. Then they are ex- 
ceedingly helpful to each other, and in a short time 
there are but few who are not provided for. This 
kindly feeling, leading them to help each other, is 
quite characteristic of this people; and it has often 
been a subject of remark among us as we see it man- 
ifested in so many different ways." 

It was a few years later that Japanese fire came 
nearer. Professor F. F. Jewett, who has the chair 
of chemistry at Oberlin University, and formerly 
held the same chair at the Imperial University at 
Tokio, recalls: 

"I happened to be at your house, I think at 
Thanksgiving dinner, when the fire broke out in 
the distance, and we watched with great anxiety 
its nearer and nearer approach. I have a vivid re- 
membrance of the rapidity with which furniture, 
carpets, etc., were rushed into the adjacent 'go- 
down' (fire-proof building) ; of the stationing of 
two of us upon one of the adjacent buildings with 
buckets of water and mops to extinguish the flying 
bits of fire as they lighted on the roof ; of the actual 
ignition of one spot in the roof of the main building, 
after we had supposed that all had been extin- 
guished and were taking some refreshment. 

"Had I kept a diary of that period of my life/' he 
goes on, "I am sure the diary would contain the 
name Krecker more often than any other name of 
whom I knew and loved in Japan. My life there 
was brightened beyond expression by the friend- 
ship and companionship of your father and mother. 
Their house was always open to me, and I always 



48 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

passed into the open door with pleasure, knowing 
the sincerity of the expressed gladness which my 
frequent calls gave them, a gladness which I felt 
perhaps more than they, as my need of companion- 
ship was so much greater. Your father and mother 
always were to me sincere in their expressions, and 
that I knew. Hence my most vivid impressions of 
your mother's character, as I saw it, was her abso- 
lute sincerity. Her cordiality of manner, therefore, 
which was marked, I was and am sure, was the ex- 
pression of a sincere, warm heart. I have always 
thought, 'What a help Mrs. Krecker must have been 
to her husband in his missionary work/ She seem- 
ed never to consider her own strength whenever 
his missionary work called for the assistance which 
she was so well fitted to render. I used to wonder 
how she could go with him, so cheerfully and glad- 
ly in the afternoons of the Sabbaths when he used 
to go to a distant part of the city to preach, or work 
in other ways, after attending to her family duties 
and possibly doing missionary work near her own 
home. 

"You must have been very young when your fath- 
er and mother found their habitation on Suruga Dai, 
not far from my own house. One of my first re- 
membrances of your family was their coming to this 
house." 

The house mentioned by Professor Jewett was 
the first house taken in Tokio by Dr. Krecker, a 
picturesque mansion on a diminutive plan, surround- 
ed with a romantic piece of garden which was walled 
in with high, black, board fencing and decorated 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 49 

with a pond, trees and mossy hillocks. He mention- 
ed it on one of his letters as "On elevated ground, in 
the heart of the city, about two miles and a half 
from the foreign concession, and three miles from 
the railroad station. It is of the kind used by the 
better class of natives, and one of the quaintest 
things imaginable, all paper doors and paper win- 
dows, you think as you first come in. However, 
there is some wall to it. In my study, for instance, 
the whole front is paper windows, from near the 
top to the floor. One half of another side is plas- 
tered wall, but covered by my book-case, while all 
the rest of the room is paper doors, opening into 
closets or other apartments. 

The government permits the professors in its col- 
leges to live outside of the foreign reservation, and 
in a few instances granted the same privilege to 
those in the employ of private individuals, and three 
missionaries were living out under contract to teach 
in private schools. After due consideration I 
opened the subject to my teacher. I proposed that 
he should get permission to open a school in Tokio, 
employ me to teach English one hour a day, and 
then apply to the government for permission to 
have me live in the native part of the city. 

"A few mornings after our arrival, two young 
men came around and inquired whether they might 
come in to our family worship, and now we have 
two, three, and sometimes four young men, besides 
our own, come in every morning to family worship. 
We have also had a little service every Sunday. 
But last Sunday, which was our third in Tokio, we 
4 



50 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

had what might be called a pretty big service, at 
least it was for us. The occasion was the baptism 
and reception into the church of Brother Horin- 
ouchi. 

That was early in August, 1877. In September 
he wrote : "Of hearers there has been no lack. Our 
evening family worship continues well attended. 
One evening, while I was away to a missionary 
prayer-meeting, my wife remained at home with the 
little ones. When the hour for evening family 
worship arrived, she rang the little bell as usual, and 
although nearly all our young men were absent, 
there were twenty natives present, a number hav- 
ing come provided with lanterns. Thus we have 
every evening from a dozen upwards. They come 
in, hear a chapter read, join in singing and prayer, 
and then they remain to talk a little, or quietly re- 
tire. 

(Prayer-meeting and Sunday services have been 
well attended the past week. Had thirty-two in 
Sunday-school yesterday. Among our attendants 
was an intelligent young woman who speaks Eng- 
lish very well. She was much interested and stated 
that she expected to attend regularly. This morn- 
ing she came round to read the Bible with Mrs. 
Krecker. Says she attended the Imperial Female 
Normal School three years — appears to be an ear- 
nest inquirer. Bro. Horinouchi has frequent vis- 
its from attendants on our services, who come to 
his room, and he talks long to them on the subject 
of religion. This will convey a little of our daily 
experience. 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 51 

About this time Mrs. Krecker narrated that "A 
few days ago an aged woman, while listening to the 
taught word for the first time, exclaimed, 'Can such 
glorious news enter into such old ears as mine ?' 

"I would like to tell you how the Lord taught a 
poor Japanese woman how to earn something for 
him. She is a servant, and her wages were not more 
than she required for a bare living. Japanese pay 
their servants very little ; some get only their board. 
She desired to give something toward spreading 
the Gospel among her people, and the Lord put in 
her mind the idea of her getting up an hour earlier 
every day than she was accustomed to, and making 
matches to sell, and that money she gave to the 
Lord. 

"Another Japanese woman was what is termed a 
'Bible woman/ She is employed by a missionary, 
and her w r ork is to study the Bible, and go from 
house to house, reading and explaining the Scrip- 
tures. She receives four or five dollars a month 
all of which she had needed to buy her food and 
clothing, but, having a desire to give money, she 
began to pray and meditate upon the subject. She 
did not feel justified in taking any of her time from 
prayer and the study of the Bible, to earn money ; 
but where there is a sincere desire, the Lord will 
always open the way. While dressing very plainly 
she had been rather scrupulous about certain prop- 
erties. For instance, she had always been very care- 
ful about her tabes, the sock, or covering for the 
feet ; as they are always exposed, it is not consider- 
ed altogether proper to wear them mended. The 



52 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

thought, however, came to her mind that if she 
mended her tabes, and wore them longer, it would 
not cost her so much. She decided to mend them, 
and save money for the Lord." 

In January, 1878, Dr. Krecker reported that "Our 
school, which we commenced in August, with one 
scholar, has increased to such an extent, that during 
the past two months we had twenty young men in 
attendance, some of them of very good standing. 
One was an officer in the Imperial War Depart- 
ment, where he was engaged in translating official 
correspondence. 

"We have preaching on Sunday morning and 
Wednesday evening, and prayer-meeting on Sunday 
evening. Notwithstanding the cold and rainy weath- 
er, which is always very trying to a Japanese con- 
gregation, we have had a good average attendance, 
ranging from twenty to thirty, on Sunday morning. 

"I have taken up another preaching place in a 
portion of the city about a mile away, having serv- 
ices there every Sunday evening, prayer-meeting 
being held at our house the same time. The first 
evening we had sixteen hearers, including a Bud- 
dhist priest. The second evening it rained very 
heavily, and only five came, but the third evening, 
although a very heavy snow-storm prevailed, I had 
the privilege to present the Word to a dozen very 
attentive listeners. Miss Hudson is making an ef- 
fort to establish a Bible class for women there also, 
which we hope will assist in extending the work. 
She also holds a Bible class now several times a 
week for the special benefit of the young men of 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 53 

our school. This, including my Saturday afternoon 
class, gives us a religious service every day in the 
week, and some days more than one. 

"Sunday, the 24th of February, had been looked 
forward to with much interest by our little com- 
pany. It was the day appointed to administer bap- 
tism to such as should prove by their profession, 
their lives, and their attendance upon the means of 
grace, the sincerity of their desire to flee from the 
wrath to come. The subject selected for the morn- 
ing sermon was John 3:16. At its close, nine adults 
who had been accepted as approved candidates 
came forward and the solemn ritual was proceeded 
with. Then all bowed at the altar, and amid the 
most profound solemnity were baptized. 

It was this year that Dr. Krecker was obliged to 
relinquish his work for a time and travel for his 
health, but by the following May his wife was 
writing her niece : "We all rejoice over Uncle Fred's 
improved condition of health. His health has im- 
proved so much that it is only when he allows him- 
self to become too closely engaged that he feels 
any trace of his former difficulty, and even then I 
do not think he suffers any more than others who 
were not broken down under the same circum- 
stances. All the missionaries feel it more or less 
when they stick too close to work. In consequence 
of this, all find it important to engage in some sort 
of out-door exercise to counteract the unfavorable 
effects of close application to study. Men in all 
branches of professional life requiring mental work, 
find it impossible in this country to work as hard 



54 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

and closely as they did at home, and daily exercise 
is indispensible to good health. 

"Uncle Fred and I do considerable walking — 
that is, we walk a mile or two every day, and some- 
times more. Last Saturday we took a trip into the 
country with an Englishman, a professor in the En- 
gineering College. He invited us to take dinner with 
him and then to take a walk in the country. I think 
I will just tell you what the dinner consisted of. 
The first course was soup, the second fish and po- 
tatoes, the third mutton, peas, and potatoes, the 
fourth bird, asparagus, and potatoes, the fifth rhu- 
barb pie, the sixth gelatine, seventh fruit, which 
consisted of oranges and strawberries. Then we 
went into the drawing-room, where we were served 
with a cup of coffee. After another pleasant little 
chat we started on our walk about two o'clock. Af- 
ter walking about a mile we reached the green fields, 
and oh, how I did enjoy it ! We reached home about 
half past seven o'clock, after having walked nine 
miles. We had, during the afternoon, stopped at 
two tea-houses with beautiful flower gardens and 
drank Japanese tea. I enjoyed the afternoon im- 
mensely. 

"I suppose you would imagine me completely done 
out after such a walk, but I was not at all. When 
we arrived at home we found that Mr. Jewett had 
not long before returned from a horse-back ride and 
had just finished Maggie's music lesson. We soon 
took our supper and had a pleasant visit with Mr. 
Jewett, and after he left we planted some fern 
which we gathered on our walk, then we went to bed 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 55 

about ten o clock, feeling all the better for the de- 
lightful way we spent the afternoon. 

"Next morning we walked, Miss Hudson with us, 
to our preaching place about three miles distant in 
three-quarters of an hour. Next evening, Tuesday, 
all of us started out and walked three miles to a 
friend's house, and after spending an hour we put 
the children into a jinrikisha, while Uncle Fred, 
Miss Hudson and I walked home again, making 
six miles after supper. We arrived home ten min- 
utes before ten o'clock. At ten the children were 
in bed and the rest of us almost ready to jump in. 
A sweet sleep we had and feel first rate to-day. 

"We learned to walk by taking first very short 
walks, and increased them every day until we knew 
we could walk a few miles at a time. I have learned 
to love walking very much. It is by taking this 
out-door exercise that we are enabled by God's 
grace to do the work we do. Uncle Fred has now 
four preaching places which are supplied every week 
with preaching. Miss Hudson has four meetings 
a week, I have three, besides having school every 
forenoon with our own children and two little girls, 
who have a native mother and a German father, and 
Nellie Amerman. In addition to this there is a 
young man who comes to take Bible lessons and I 
also teach our servants separately. I take much 
pleasure in the work. One of our Christians, & 
a young lady about twenty, is a great comfort to 
me. She is such an earnest zealous Christian. 
Talks English some. Her influence for Jesus is 
beginning to tell. I feel as if it were God's good 



56 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

pleasure to make her an instrument in his hands to 
bring many into the kingdom." 

To a sister-in-law she wrote: "We can buy all 
the vegetables that we have at home from the Jap- 
anese. Most of them have been introduced by for- 
eigners. We get beans, peas, cabbage, beets, rad- 
ishes, turnips, asparagus, carrots, corn, Irish po- 
tatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. Corn is not very plen- 
tiful, but we get a taste every year. We can buy 
vegetables, I mean green vegetables, nearly every 
month of the year. I forgot to mention tomatoes 
and egg-plant, of which we are so fond. Tomatoes 
do not seem to be raised in such great abundance, 
but egg-plant we have from now on till late in the 
fall. Strawberries are raised in abundance, they 
last from about the middle of May until the mid- 
dle of June. We bought some at three cents a 
pound, the first ones and the last ones are always 
very high. I think the first ones were twenty-three 
cents a pound. At present they are twelve cents. 
Last year they were sold by the hundred. 

"The Japanese have also learned to make pre- 
serves. We can buy nice preserves at a reasonable 
rate. We have peaches, plums, grapes, apricots, 
water-melons and musk-melons, etc., in the fruit 
lines. At present we have a fruit we know nothing 
of in America. The Japanese call them biwas; 
they have the shape of a crab-apple, having three 
large seeds in them, you can imagine that there is 
not much there to eat, yet we enjoy them. We have 
no good cherries and no good apples. They have 
a very small apple, but they are nothing like a good 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 57 

apple. We get beef, chickens, ducks, geese, tur- 
keys, and fish, — in short, we can, with few excep- 
tions, get anything we eat at home." 

Dr. Krecker in the meantime had reported that, 
"The permission I had to live out of the foreign 
concession expired during the summer. Three 
successive applications, in varying forms, to have 
the term extended, as has been the case in similar 
instances heretofore, were rejected, and, in conse- 
quence, I was necessitated to move into the con- 
cession. 

"The little folks are greatly pleased with the 
change, as they are, once more, in a small foreign 
community, and have associates. 

Life in Tsukiji, the foreign concession, offered 
occasional social diversion in the tranquil way in 
which it is enjoyed by Tokio residents, not only 
with rowing and tennis and an occasional sight- 
seeing party, — an expedition up the Sumida River 
to enjoy the rare cherry blossoms falling in perpet- 
ual showers of pink and white blossoms along the 
avenues of Mukojima, a Fourth of July celebration 
in a house-boat, viewing the nocturnal display of 
fine fire-works furnished every summer, at a con- 
venient date for Yankees to link with Independence 
Day, a wedding or a garden party; but also the 
quiet little round of social calls, with now and then 
a dinner or a tiffin, and every month what was 
termed a "missionary social gathering," where con- 
genial spirits met of an evening to indulge in games, 
or music, or readings, with a little cup of that which 
cheers but does not inebriate. To these were added 



58 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

the rarer invitations to some diplomatic function, 
or to a party given by the Governor of Tokio and 
Madame Yoshikawa, or to some naval festivity 
on board one of Uncle Sam's vessels lying off the 
harbor, among whose crews were former associ- 
ates of the doctor's, or again to do honor to some 
distinguished visitor, among whom are recalled Gen- 
eral Grant, Joseph Cook, and the King of the Sand- 
wich Islands. Maggie wrote to her cousin : "I must 
add that the King of the Sandwich Islands came to 
Japan, as it was the ninth anniversary of a Japanese 
church to which he had sent some money. He was 
invited to the church's birthday meeting, and papa 
and mamma also went. After the meeting mamma 
dined with the King and had a very pleasant time.' ' 

But to Dr. and Mrs. Krecker life in Tsukiji main- 
ly meant Tokio's slums. Immediately off the for- 
eign concession are some of the most miserable 
quarters of the Japanese capital, to which no Jap- 
anese physician would follow. Dr. Krecker came to 
minister to the invalid poor and Mrs. Krecker came 
with instruction in religion and in English, for the 
women and children gathered in the hut of a jin- 
rikisha man. It was in 1881 that she wrote : 

"I think- I have told you about a work that 
I commenced about a year ago among some of the 
poorest of the poor, in a section not far from us, by 
holding a meeting to talk about Jesus to some of 
the poor women. The place was in a narrow little 
back alley, in a small house hardly large enough 
for us all to sit down on the floor in. Through in- 
creasing numbers the little quarters soon got too 



With Dr. Kreckcr in Japan. 59 

small, so a larger house was secured on a better 
street, and by assisting the family to pay the rent, we 
got them to move in it. As the interest increased, 
we finally started preaching there, and during the 
past winter I started a day school there for poor 
children, putting a: Japanese teacher in charge, while 
I visited it in the afternoon three or four times a 
week to teach the little girls sewing and give them 
religious instruction. 

"Again we found it necessary to move and, as 
no place large enough could be rented, we recently 
bought and fitted up a roomy house that will make 
us a very satisfactory preaching place and school- 
room, while the family in whose house we first com- 
menced work, occupy part of it and serve as a nu- 
cleus to draw in the people. On Sunday, the 10th, 
we had dedicatory services, including also a num- 
ber of addresses by some natives, and it was to us 
all a memorable and happy occasion. The next day 
I had additional opening exercises for the scholars 
and their mothers, after which cakes and tea were 
served to them. This gives us a very satisfactory 
work among a class of people who greatly need both 
intellectual and religious instruction/' 

Almost at the very dawn of the next year came, 
as little Marguerite puts it, "The loveliest Christ- 
mas present imaginable. Long live Frederick the 
Third! Born Dec. 21, 1881. Weighs nine pounds, 
and the best baby alive to the Frederick Krecker, 
Jr. family." 

And a few months later Marguerite wrote to the 
same cousin, "Mr. Cooper, the husband of the lady 



6o Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

to whom brother and I recite Latin, told mamma 
one day, that when she had Baby in her arms, or 
when he saw her with Baby, she always looked like 
a young mother with her first baby ! 

"Her birthday is on the first of August, and she 
will be thirty-nine years old. She was speaking 
of her age to a lady the other day, who was very 
much surprised to hear that she was so near forty. 
'Why/ she said, 'I have seen ladies much younger 
than you are, look older !' She and papa always 
seemed as if they were just married, and Baby was 
their first child. ,, 

Another note from the same juvenile correspon- 
dent refers to her mamma's youthful beauty. "I'll 
tell you about the wedding/' says she. "It was of 
Miss Munson, an American, to Mr. White, an Eng- 
lishman. They had to get married by the clergy- 
man of the English Church at the English Legation. 
Mamma had a light silk on, and I had trimmed her 
up with flowers, and when she got there the porter 
thought perhaps she was the bride ! The marriage 
ceremony was very long, but very nice, mamma 
said. After the marriage the party went to the 
house where they had the reception." 

Of the Baby, Mrs. Krecker writes, "It seems to 
me we realize more fully than ever that 'a babe 
in a family is a well-spring of joy.' He is just 
four months old to-day. We ail think he is just 
splendid. He is a constant joy in the family. The 
childreen are ever full of admiration for their little 
brother, and he is growing in interest all the while. 
We take much pleasure in noticing the development 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 61 

of his mind. We have been going out boating a 
good deal this summer while baby was well; we 
went every evening for a season ; we all enjoy it very 
much. The children have learneed to row." 

The first thrills of joy over the coming of the 
man-child had scarcely died away ere the gloom 
of a great sorrow beclouded the home of one whose 
life had been termed "one of increasing excellence. " 
Not quite three years before, in May, 1880, the Rev, 
and Mrs. Jacob Hartzler, who were intimately as- 
sociated as were perhaps no others with Dr. and 
Mrs. Krecker, and whose friendship has ever re- 
mained inestimably sweet to all their family, had 
come to Japan as Superintendent of the Mission, and 
in his farewell, Mr. Hartzler had said to his friends : 
"I do not know how long I can be there; nor how 
much I shall be able with the help of God, to ac- 
complish, but by the grace of God I shall now go, 
though it be only to die. If it be my privilege only 
to show the heathen how to die, I shall be content, 
for then, as some one has happily expressed it, 
we shall take Japan with a grave. None of the 
missionaries of our Association have as yet died 
in Japan ; but the time will come, and perhaps 
sooner than we expect, that we shall take Japan 
with graves." 

The time had now come, and it had come soonei 
than was expected, and Japan was taken with a 
grave. While in attendance upon one of his pool 
patients of Odawaracho, Dr. Krecker had contract- 
ed a malignant form of typhus fever. He at once 
realized the serious nature of this disease; gave 



62 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krcckcr. 

full directions regarding his family before the com- 
ing of delirium; to his wife he said: "Nothing 
troubles me ; I have no doubts and no fears ; I am 
at perfect peace," and after a few weeks of intense 
suffering, passed away on the 26th of April, iSS v v 
He had long ago remarked to Mrs. Krecker that 
he sometimes felt that he would in some way give 
his life for the Japanese, and at the solemn little 
service held the morning after his death the Rev, 
Geo. Meacham remarked in the memorial sermon: 
"It was the grace of God in him which enabled him 
literally to give his life for the people. It may be 
said in an accommodated sense of him, as was said 
of his Master: 'He saved others; himself he could 
not save.' It was my privilege to know something 
of his inner life and of his interior springs of ac- 
tion, and to the praise of the glory of the grace of 
God I would testify that for a good many months 
tefore his departure he rapidly grew in grace and 
seemed to be outstripping the rest of us in the race. 
It appeared to me that he was becoming prepared 
for much more extensive usefulness; little did I 
dream that he was ripening for glory. The office 
of eulogy and panegyric is a dangerous one. We 
will not praise our beloved brother. The poor will 
praise him. His works will praise him/' 

"Would that my poor pen could tell what a man 
he was, and how much good he accomplished in 
Japan f" affectionately wrote Professor Jewett. "The 
fact that he loved the Japanese and desired for them 
the highest blessing showed itself in all his inter- 
course with them, and they very soon learned to 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 63 

trust him implicitly. There seemed to have arisen 
in them a love for him which was very marked. 
His work was eminently successful because he car- 
ried into his work a consecrated, loving spirit. If 
to accomplish it personal inconvenience or sacrifice 
was needed, it was cheerfully submitted to as a 
thing that would help on his great work. 

"By his success as a physician he won the confi- 
dence of the people, and they were willing the more 
readily to heed his teachings on religious subjects. 
Not only by the Japanese was he regarded as a care- 
ful and trustworthy physician, but also by the for- 
eigners who employed him in time of sickness. 

"The kindness which he showed in his intercourse 
with all with whom he became acquainted was very 
noticeeable, and the warm, hearty pressure of the 
hand which a caller at his house was sure to receive, 
made one feel immediately at ease. This cordial 
feeling which he showed to those outside of his 
family, would naturally lead us to expect that he 
would be peculiarly tender, loving and affectionate 
to the members of his own family, and such was 
the case. I never knew a family in which there was 
deeper affection between the members. The love 
and tender esteem with which Dr. Krecker always 
treated his wife and children was remarked by all 
who knew them. In all my intercourse with the 
family. I never heard an unkind word pass his lips. 
Family life as illustrated in the Krecker family, is 
an almost perfect one." 

Sometime during the summer following this 
spring of anguish Dr. Krecker's widow wrote : 



64 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker* 

"The loss of that which of our earthly possessions 
is nearest and dearest produces an effect upon the 
character. We search for that which we have left 
that can support; when found, we cling to it most 
tenaciously. My feelings were that I had nothing 
more to lean upon ; nothing more to live for ; but 
in my searchings I was met by my blessed Saviour, 
who through his Holy Spirit whispered peace to 
my troubled spirit, saying, 'Live for the charge 
which I have left in your lone hands ; live for the 
souls around you who sit in the darkness and blank 
gloom of idolatry; live for me/ My soul responded, 
By thy grace, for thee will I live ; to do thy will shall 
be my delight.' I felt my soul being drawn upward 
into nearer, sweeter communion with Jesus our 
blessed Lord, who is touched with a feeling of our 
infirmities. I was filled with the 'joy of consolation.' 
Yea, when my soul melted with heaviness the Lord 
strengthened me according to his word. I have had 
moments of profound, solitary, inactive affliction, 
which would be too much for reason to bear even 
for a moment, without the consolation of religion. 
To be bereaved of a loving, gentle, sympathetic, un- 
selfish and self-sacrificing, devoted husband and 
father, to whom we clung with intense attachment, 
is enough to shatter loving hearts, and nothing less 
than the grace of God can heal the deep, sore 
wounds. He was taken in his prime ; he was taken 
when his best work seemed yet to be done ; he was 
taken, when to plant firmly the blood-stained banner 
of our Saviour King in this land, yet to be con- 



With Dr. Krecker in Japan. 65 

quered, the church needed self-sacrificing men at 
the front. 

"These mysteriees I have never tried to solve; T 
leave them entirely with the Lord, sincerely believ- 
ing that he could accomplish a wise, loving purpose 
in his death that he could not accomplish in his life. 
Yet, I by no means believe that his work on earth 
is finished. I believe that he has resumed his la- 
bors under better auspices ; that he has only gone up 
to higher appointments; that in his "fatigueless 
service" he joins us in our efforts to save the souls 
of the heathen, for whom he labored so faithfully 
when here in body. His heart was in his Master's 
cause; he labored hard; his working time in the 
flesh was short; his rest shall be long and increas- 
ingly sweet. 

"My implicit confidence in God ; my belief that he 
is love ; that he doeth all things well ; that all things 
shall work together for good and for his honor and 
glory, saved me from sinking into despair; active 
exercise in the same faith cheers me now and saves 
me from a morbid frame of mind which loves to 
sit in solitude and mourn. For the mourner such 
a frame had its fascinations, and if not resisted in 
the very beginning, may grow and become the 
luxury of woe, and result in enervating and en- 
slaving the soul ; but through the grace of God, my 
heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. He saves me 
from fear of evil ; he saves me from trouble and 
anguish; he causes me to lie down in peace and 
sleep ; 'he only maketh me to dwell in safety, there- 
5 



66 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 



fore will I give thanks among the heathen and sing 
praises to his name/ " 

There were about two more years of the quiet, 
busy missionary life in Japan for Mrs. Krecker. 
In 1884 she sent her two oldest children to America 
to their grandfather, the Rev. Frederick Krecker, 
of Norristown, Pa., to study in the excellent Nor- 
ristown schools, and something more than a year 
later, in November, 1885, with the education of her 
little family in mind, she and the two younger chil- 
dren bade farewell to the Land of the Morning, such 
a large following of weeping natives collecting at 
the Tokio railway station that bystanders asked what 
dignitary was this whose departure created all this 
stir. 

Mrs. Hartzler, wife of Bishop H. B. Hartzler, 
brother to the Japan missionary, has crystallized 
the Japan going and coming in these apt reminis- 
cences: "When she and Dr. Krecker, with others, 
sat around the table in Rev. Jacob Hartzler' s home, 
just before starting for Japan, I asked whether she 
was glad to go. She replied, 'Yes, — we have count- 
ed the cost and realize what it all means.' On her 
return to the homeland, after the death of her noble 
husband, we referred to the above remark, and she 
said, 'It was a costly experience, but we would not 
have it otherwise ; it is all right, — hard as it seems.' " 
At a welcome-home meeting she spoke of what it 
meant to sacrifice, and with most loving words, 
added, 'But our Jesus made a greater sacrifice than 
man ever could/ " 



CHAPTER IV. 



"mutterchen." 



"Her heart was always with her home," says 
Mrs. Vincent. 

Her home was always with her children. To say 
that she perfectly identified her interests with theirs 
is perhaps but another way of putting this, and to 
add that she sacrificed much and achieved much for 
them is only saying it again. 

When the principal of Schuylkill Seimnary, now 
Albright College, of Myerstown, Pennsylvania, 
made his annual report to the trustees of that school 
in the spring of 1886, he cited as worthy of emula- 
tion by other parents, the action of Mrs. Krecker, 
just returned from Japan, in taking a house in 
Fredericksburg, the school's new home, for the ex- 
press purpose of giving her children the Sem- 
inary's advantages. 

This step of Mrs. Krecker's would scarcely 
amaze any one familiar with the lively ambitions 
she cherished for her children and the quiet practi- 
cality she used in setting about to execute them, 
and the unusual skill she showed as a financier. Yet 
the sequel thereto is none the less rare and remark- 
able. That long ago she and Dr. Krecker had 
planned to give their children solid education is re- 
vealed in a letter written by her in 1877, when the 
eldest was less than ten years of age : 

67 



68 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

"The children continue to be interested in their 
studies/' it ran. "They are all especially fond of 
reading. Maggie and Preston are at present read- 
ing 'Robinson Crusoe.' They are intensely interest- 
ed. We hope we may be successful in preparing 
them for some college. With our Master's assist- 
ance I think we can. "But that nine years later, when 
single-handed and alone, when father, mother, pro- 
vider and house-mistress for the family (all in her- 
self), when away from home a large portion of her 
time, she should carry out this plan, not only taking 
four children through preparatory training, but 
graduating three from two of America's foremost 
colleges, — Princeton and Wellesley, — all the while 
retaining a pleasant home for them,— surely even 
hers and her husband's sanguine temperaments had 
not conceived. If the equal of her achievement is 
to be found, it must be searched for with grand pa- 
tience, for such are not common. 

How this little mamma — "Mutterchen" was a pet 
name for her, — arranged far ahead for the system- 
atic expenditure of her income, how she chose their 
food and dress with singlemindeed adherence to 
health and economy, how she nevertheless had al- 
ways a little to spare for some coveted pleasure 
trip now and then, for a new book, a gift, and a 
fresh frock, hospitalities extended to teachers and 
schoolmates and friends, are vivid, stimulating mem- 
ories with Mrs. Krecker's children. 

As noteworthw as it is beautiful, is the fact that 
despite all the self-denials required to achieve this, 
she never placed herself in the position of aught 



"Mutterchen" 69 

save queen of the home. By both father and moth- 
er her children were instilled with the recognition 
not only of the authority, but the supremacy in every 
way of their mother. When a house-maid was 
lacking they felt it their duty to do, and have moth- 
er done unto. Household matters of every variety 
she might attend to, but it was theirs to fetch and 
carry. For them to pass through a door first and 
let mamma humbly follow, for them to find the favor- 
ite easy chair in the library and leave the straight- 
backs for "Mutterchen," for them to wait elegantly 
in the parlor while "Mudder" was hunting their 
cuff-buttons and ribbons in an up-stairs bureau 
drawer, for them to sit at the table and have her 
serve them, for them to find leisure to play when she 
had lamp chimneys to shine or beds to make, was 
almost unthinkable save under exceptional circum- 
stances. 

"Mutterchen" was the one to whom honor was 
done, "Mutterchen" was the one whose errands 
were to be run, whose meals were to be served in 
state, whose Christmas presents must be handsome, 
whose birthday must be celebrated, — her birthday 
being the only family date which of late years sur- 
vived to the estate of a commemorated red-letter 
occasion for which poetry was written, toasts drunk, 
and the fatted calf killed and sundry pennies spent 
on gifts. And this through no coercion or even sug- 
gestion from the mother, but simply the natural 
course of things when the queen of the home had in- 
vested her throne with royal grace, and by a sweet 



jo Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

and loving sovereignty won eager allegiance and 
honor. 

Sweet and lovely sovereignty was indeed Mrs. 
Krecker's home rule. It was never "Do this" or 
"do that." "Don't do so and so;" but "You may 
do that," or "My bonnet is lying up-stairs on my 
bed. Do you think you could find it?" or, if in cor- 
rection, "Do you think that is pretty?" or "I hope 
you were gentle in your remarks. You have much 
to learn in that line." It was her idea that to seek 
to do the pleasure of father and mother, and to find 
happiness in ministering to their happiness was the 
natural impulse of the properly reared child and it 
was on that basis that she dealt with her children. 

In the same tranquil, effective way, ambition was 
instilled into the minds of her children. Both fath- 
er and mother imbuecl them with the idea that 
something above the common was expected, and 
while it was not driven home with tiring force, it 
was none the less present and felt. "I am so glad 
to see the children doing so well," a cousin visiting 
from a distance remarked to Mrs. Krecker under a 
cherry-tree at the Fredericksburg home. "But 
then," he added, "it was just what I always ex- 
pected." 

"That was just the way we felt," smiled Mrs. 
Krecker in reply, regardless of a daughter's near-by 
ears ; "and we thought if they knew we expected it 
they would do so." Whether in lessons or manners, 
or dress or play, or original efforts, when merit was 
attained it was appreciated and commented upon, 
simply and freely without fear of engendering van- 



" Mutter chen." 71 

ity or pride, and always leaving the impression that 
any such merit was the natural result of right 
thinking and acting and that there were ever high- 
er standards beyond. 

But over and above all, and permeating all, were 
her spiritual ambitions for her children. It per- 
haps needs something of Mrs. Krecker's disposi- 
tion to apprehend an inspiration for every earthly 
good, yet for all achievements to be used only as a 
vessel to hold the holy things of God, an open win - 
dow through which the breath of Divine purpose 
should pass. Ambition such as this makes impos- 
sible either vanity or greed. "I want you to be and 
have the best/' she said to one of her daughters, 
"because I think it is right, it is natural for us to 
be and to have the best." One of her familiar 
watchwords in her confidential motherly talks was 
that she wanted the world to be better for each of 
her children having lived in it. 

So far as circumstances allowed, Mrs. Krecker 
was always with her two sons and two daughters, 
in the drawing room with their young friends, in 
the wood with their school excursions, and later 
when the home was moved first to Lebanon, in 
1895, and a year afterwards to Philadelphia, she 
gave her delightful society for every sort of the 
city'* amusemnts which the younger element en- 
joyed. "It was always one of the dearest treats of 
my life to go out with mamma anywhere; she was 
such a dear, charming companion," Mrs. Vincent 
writes. No diversion was too youthful for the 
mother. "She is the youngest of us all," one of her 



72 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

daughters remarked, while Mrs. Krecker herself 
confessed that she was often more at home with 
young people than with older persons. This young 
mamma of fifty felt, and her children felt, that her 
pleasure was theirs and theirs was hers, and that in 
each others society every recreation was relished 
with enhanced zest. To have all of them gathered 
about her, exchanging incidents and anecdotes and 
divers thoughts and experiences was one of her 
most supremely vivid pleasures, perhaps more vivid 
each year as such sweet occasions became 
events long anticipated, and yet longer re- 
membered by her fond heart. And it was worth 
months of waiting to see the lovely turns of expres- 
sion of peace and delight that played on her face as 
she looked from one dear child to the other, as eacli 
become spokesman, or radiantly watched the group 
as a whole. 

Hers indeed was a nature that flowered with a spe- 
cial charm in the home circle. It was to the loved ones 
at home that she unbosomed the sweet secrets of her 
lovely heart, that she spoke with entire abandon of 
people and things and events and pretty plans, 
scheming now as to how she would apportion a mil- 
lion dollars had she the sum to spend on missions, 
and now building a colossal air-castle home, fair and 
fit with every luxury, wherein she and her children 
and her children's children should live happily for- 
ever after. Indeed she never relinquished hoping 
and planning for a home where all would be togeth- 
er, even although it might entail a number of dis- 
tinct houses ,or one vast piece of land. 



" Mutter chen!' 73 

She was fond of reading aloud, and sometimes 
caused much amusement by her tireless pursuit all 
over the house until she found some one not too 
busy to listen to a short extract, be it a dialect 
story, which she was unusually successful in ren- 
dering, something new about the stars, which she 
loved to study, a half hour's article by Dr. Pierson 
from the latest Missionary Review, a newly arrived 
letter or a bit of verse. The famous little German 
poem on "Der Mond als Schafer/' (The Moon as 
a Shepherd"), she found particularly appealing, as 
its descriptions of the shepherd Moon climbing the 
white hill clouds or peering through from his home 
behind the tree-tops, were compared with her own 
views of this same Man in the Moon, from the ham- 
mock swinging off the old apple trees of her Fred- 
ericksburg home. 

When separated from home and the children she 
despatched long letters, nearly every one of which 
for the past twenty years have been preserved. 
Thse have detailed accounts of all doings, supple- 
mented with much counsel, both of which it seems 
remarkable she found time to write and both of 
which were all gone over again with charming ani- 
mation and zeal the minute she was inside the 
home, amidst a general scampering for her bag- 
gage on the part of the masculine juveniles and for 
her bonnet and gloves by the feminine contingent. 
"Mamma's quite a talker, isn't she?" the lad Pres- 
ton remarked after a home-coming, when she had 
almost crystallized into a quarter of an hour the 
events of three months. 



74 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Her letters, fragmentarily although they must 
appear in print, can scarcely be read without im- 
parting to the reader some sense of the tender and 
watchful mother spirit : 

"You will imagine me a happy mother when I 
tell you I have received word from every one of my 
scattered children. 

"No one need worry about a Christmas present 
for me. Getting home will be enough for me. I 
am on the train and have been for a little while. I 
am now on my way to my last appointment. 

"I am anxious to have the children ready to sing 
for me when I get home. Since I have been away 
I have thought of Grandma Krecker so much, how 
she used to love to have her children gather around 
the organ and sing. She often said that was her 
greatest delight." 

"It seems to me we do not understand our rela- 
tion to God, our heavenly Father, as we ought to, 
in order to enjoy life as he would have us enjoy it. 
Therefore I am always glad for anything that helps 
me to understand God's purposes more clearly, and 
I am eager to help others to the same end as much 
as is in my power to do." 

"This is 's birthday. I gave him a book 

which Marguerite purchased yesterday. It is Wal- 

den by Thoreau. read from it some this 

evening. It is very entertaining. Here are a few 
of his sayings, 'Public opinion is a weak tyrant com- 
pared with our own private opinion. What a man 
thinks of himself, that it is which determines or 
rather indicates his fate. Self-emancipation even 



"Mutterchen." 75 

in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and 
imagination — What Wilberforce is there to bring 
that about? Think also of the ladies of the land 
weaving toilet cushions against the last day, not to 
betray too green an interest in their fates ! As if 
you could kill time without injuring eternity/' 

"To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle 
thought, not even to found a school, but so to love 
wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of 
simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. 
It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only 
theoretically but practically/ You will find it in- 
teresting reading, I think, some time when you come 
home." 

"Solomon says, 'with all your getting get wis- 
dom/ Oh for wisdom to learn to get most out of 

our lives. Dear , do not be untrue to your 

better thoughts. Always do that which you think 
will do you the most good. Do determine to build 
up your character, to be just the right kind of a 
man. And I am sure that the less you learn of the 
things that bring so much ruin into the world the 
better for you and the better for the world/' 

"I am anxious that you should start life right. 
Avoid even the appearance of evil. Do that which 
you believe in your heart will develop the better 
part of your being. You will then never have any- 
thing to regret. And you can always have the 
highest respect for yourself. You will remember 

that in one of her letters your sister says 

she is learning to enjoy good conversations more 
than amusements. I think it would be of greater 



j6 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

value to you to seek companions who would be help- 
ful to you in learning to converse freely, and for 
you to store your mind with things that will be 
profitable to talk about. Learn and study the 
things which will bring you good returns." 

"I wish you to take a high standard in life, and 
study how to put into place the noble qualities in 
man. What is more beautiful than a Christian gen- 
tleman ? One who knows what it is to be a Chris- 
tian and a gentleman in the full meaning of the 
word. I want to tell you I am glad that you tell me 
these things. I would be very sorry indeed if you 
were to do things that you were afraid to tell 
mother. Make up your mind that you will never 
do that. And now let me tell you again to improve 
your religious advantages. You will never be sor- 
ry for learning how to be a true follower of Jesus. 
Never the longest day that you live." 

"I am glad that you do try to take advantage of 
the religious privieges afforded at college. I want 
you to improve all such opportunities because you 
will never be sorry for it. I realize for myself that 
we need all the helps we can get to educate our- 
selves into good Christian people. What I greatly 
desire, — yes, above everything else is that my chil- 
dren bring their lives into harmony with God's will. 
That is what I am striving for myself." 

"Now, my boy, I want to tell you that I wish my 
children, — all other people for that matter, — to do 
only such things as will tend to elevate. I wish you 
would think of these things. This last sentence re- 
minds me of some of Paul's words, I believe I will 



"Mutterchen." yy 

find them and quote them, 'Whatsoever things are 
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatso- 
ever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of 
good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be 
any praise, think on these things/ " 

"Oh, how I wish you would determine by the help 
of God to do only those things which will develop 
that part of your nature which will bring your whole 
life into harmony with God's will ! By this I mean 
develop the better part of you. I don't mean now 
a sanctimonious person. But just to do your part 
toward becoming a 'perfect man unto the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ/ Eph. 4: 13, 
I never have thought of these things as I have come 
to think of them lately. I feel that it is such a pity 
that we should be so ignorant or so unwise as to do 
things that we know will keep us from developing 
into such beings as we might be. I want you to 
determine with the grace of God to bring out of 
yourself all the possibilities hidden away in your 
mysterious being. That will imply helpfulness to 
others. You cannot develop your own best nature 
without being helpful to others, be it conscious or 
unconscious. 

"I feel that there are great possibilities in you. 
You have very good natural abilities. And I can- 
not tell how I long to see them brought out to best 
advantage. I now have no selfish thoughts in mind 
at all; I am just wishing to have you as God wants 
you to be. I am praying every day as I never did 
before, for my children that their lives may be 



78 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

brought into harmony with God's purposes. I don't 
care for methods or theories. I only care that we all 
be and do what is right and good. Of course 
the Bible is the best guide to help us along in un- 
derstanding what is right. But it is not the only 
helpful book." 

"I am so pleased with your decision in regard to 
the money you earned last summer, that I will 
write to you the first letter of the morning. I can- 
not tell you how delighted I am that you will thus 
remember the teaching of the Bible and give one- 
tenth of your first earnings to God's work in the 
world. I consider this a step in the right direction. 
I am assured if you will follow out all the prin- 
ciples laid down in the Bible you will be successful in 
life. I can wish nothing better for you than that 
you bring your life in harmony with God's will. I 
am becoming more and more convinced that our 
lives can be made to correspond with God's desire 
toward us if we will but study his laws and ask 
him to give us grace and wisdom to walk in his 
ways. 

"I think one trouble with honest young people is, 
they take some one who is not worthy of being fol- 
lowed as their example, and they forget to learn 
directly from the Word of God through the Holy 
Spirit. I have always been desirous that my chil- 
dren be filled with the Holy Spirit. I have de- 
sired it for myself, too. And I do praise God for 
what the Holy Spirit has done and is doing for me ; 
but I realize that I have been too slow to learn how 
to yield myself fully to the work of the Holy 



"Mutterchen" 79 

Spirit. At the same time I also realize that I am 
learning along this line all the time. 

"And life is becoming more interesting every 
day. I am learning to consider myself a part of 
God's plan to help the world as I never did before. 
There seems to be so much more in life when one 
understands it in that way. I will quote the words 
which I chose to commit this morning : 'I will pray 
the Father and he shall send you another Comforter, 
that he may be with you forever ; even the Spirit of 
Truth; whom the world cannot receive; for it be- 
holdeth him not, neither knoweth him ; ye know him 
for he is with you ; and shall be in you/ This study 
of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit has become a 
most delightful study to me. It would be a great 
joy to me if you were to take it up in your youth. 
Pardon me for continuing just a little. The thought 
of the very Spirit of God is wondrously beautiful 
to me. Let me quote a little from Andrew Murray : 
This Spirit of the Divine life is now to be in us, in 
the deepest sense of the word, the principle of our 
life, the root of our personality, too, the very life 
of our being and consciousness.' * * * 'Men always 
expect the kingdom of God to come with observa- 
tion; they know not that it is a hidden mystery, to 
be received only as, in his own self-revealing power, 
God makes himself known in hearts surrendered 
and prepared for him/ * * * 'Deeper than mind and 
feeling and will, deeper than the soul, where these 
have their seat, in the depths of the Spirit that came 
from God, there comes the Holy Spirit to dwell.' 

"This dwelling is therefore first of all, and al! 



80 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

through, to be recognized by faith. Even when I 
cannot see the least evidence of his working ? I am 
quietly and reverently to believe that he dwells in 
me. In that faith I am restfully and trustfully to 
count upon his working, and to wait for it. His first 
workings may be so feeble and hidden that I can 
hardly recognize them as coming from him; they 
may appear to be nothing more than the voice of 
conscience, or the familiar sound of some Bible 
truth. Here is the time for faith to hold fast the 
Master's promise and the Father's gift, and to trust 
that the Spirit is within and will guide. In that 
faith let me continually yield up my whole being to 
his rule and mastery; let me be faithful to what 
appears the nearest to his voice; in such faith and 
such faithfulness my soul will be prepaid for know- 
ing his voice better." 

"We were surprised to hear of your school being 
so large. And are pleased to learn of the goo 1 con- 
duct of your pupils, especially as the children of 
manufacturing towns do not generally bear very 
good reputations. You certainly have quite a large 
field of labor before you. Blessed child of God! 
With such glorious privileges of making our dear 
loving Saviour known to so many tender hearts. 
May the God give you grace to improve every op- 
portunity of doing good that he so graciously 
grants you. May your meditations of our precious 
Saviour be sweet. May your communion with him 
be perpetual. It is a blessed truth that the more we 
commune with our dear Jesus the more attractive he 
becomes to us. May his grace be poured into your 



"Mutt ere hen/' 81 

lips and his light into your mind so that you may 
be enabled to speak of Jesus and his graces and 
gifts, his attributes and his perfections in such a 
way that they might behold Jesus in his beautiful 
and lovely and amiable character. The love of 
Jesus is an object, the greatest and most sublime 
that imagination can conceive and the most pleas- 
ing and important that the human mind can con- 
template. Give yourself much to the prayerful 
study of the Bible. I am much pleased with your 
expressed desire of being a devoted follower of 
our precious, meek, and lovely Jesus." 

"Seek that degree of faith which will enable you 
to subordinate all your desires of personal good 
to that standard which God has established, being 
willing and desirous to trust all your happiness, 
whether it relates to the present or the future, with 
that great and good Being who is infinite in wisdom, 
and whose unchanging law is Eternal Love, and 
who never does otherwise than right. Look to him 
in the exercise of faith that you may always be 
guided right. Choose your friends in the Lord, or 
rather, look to the Lord to choose them for you. 
And then you will be likely not only to choose them 
right, but to keep them long. And what otherwise 
would fail to be the case, it will be a friendship 
hallowed by the divine blessing. It is a great and 
blessed privilege to leave everything in the hands 
of the Lord ; to go forth like the patriarch Shaham, 
not knowing whither we go ; but only knowing that 
God leads us. 'Be careful for nothing; but in ev- 
erything by prayer and supplication, with thanks - 
6 



82 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

giving let your requests be made known unto 
God.' Faith in its relation to the subject of it, is 
truly a light in the soul, but it is a light which 
shines only upon duties, and not upon results or 
events. It tells us what is now to be done, but it 
does not tell us what is to follow. And accordingly 
it guides us but a single step at a time. To live by 
faith and to cast all our cares upon God, who car- 
eth for us, is a way of living which may well be 
styled blessed and glorious, however mysterious it 
may be to human vision. Disappointment may af- 
flict us ; but it cannot disturb our serenity. We may 
undergo deprivations and sorrows, but if we are 
truly resigned to God in the exercise of faith, we will 
find in faith such a consolation and support that we 
will be enabled to remain peaceful and even thank- 
ful, recognizing God's hand in everything and 
knowing that he will permit only those things to 
come upon us which are for our good, our repose 
of the inward Spirit, which strong faith has brought 
into unity with God, will not be broken. We can 
always say, 'All is well/ Remain, therefore, in the 
attitude of waiting upon God, who gives light to the 
understanding as well as renovation to the heart. 
Neither yield to fear on the one hand, nor to sug- 
gestion of eager desire on the other hand. 

"We ought not to desire and we certainly do not 
need anything which comes from the world, inde- 
pendent of God's will; but the illumination which 
comes from God's wisdom and God's will is indis- 
pensable. And it is so because it is precisely that 
which is adapted to the situation in which his prov- 



"Mutterchen" 83 

idence has placed us. And if in humility and con- 
secration of heart we are willing to trust him, he 
will always let all things work together for good. 
Let nothing discourage you but always trust in the 
Lord and make up your mind that God shall always 
be your refuge. We are so slow to learn, or at 
least I was a long time learning that to give all to 
the Lord is best, that I feel it is my duty to do all 
I can to bring others into a full trust in our perfect 
Saviour." 



CHAPTER V. 

"the Frances wiixard of our woman's mis- 
sionary society/' 

The story of Mrs. Krecker's connection with the 
Woman's Missionary Society is the history of a 
heart replying "I can" when duty whispered "You 
must." 

It was not because Mrs. Krecker had any de- 
sire for pulpit or platform that she was a public 
speaker ; it was not because she felt a native taste for 
mingling with the many, that her heart and life were 
interwoven with the destinies of the Woman's Mis- 
sionary Society; it was not because she relished 
either leadership or control that she was in au- 
thority. 

Hers was a nature that withdrew from publicity ; 
hers was an affection that clung with everlasting 
tenderness and self-immolation round a few near, 
responsive hearts; hers was a temperament that 
leaned, depended, followed. True, the thrilling 
current of feeling that flows from speaker to rapt 
audience, the large and joyous love for a wide, 
wide world of friends, for a yet wider world of 
strangers, all of whose souls are felt to be like unto 
one's own, animated by the same breath of life, as- 
piring to the same high destiny; the spiritual lux- 
ury of being a power for good — all these results 

84 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 85 

of a consecrated public career, and greater than 
these came to Mrs. Krecker's waiting heart. But 
they were the harvest reaped with joy after long 
sowing in tears. The moments of ecstasy over 
success, the seasons of journey ings where glad 
welcome and sundry honors sometimes made of 
each day a triumphal arch, the communion with 
kindred spirits met here or there in her travels, 
which were mental and spiritual feasts, can never 
veil the reality that the beginning and much of the 
middle and ending of Mrs. Krecker's public life 
were grim duties, softened and illumined only by 
her dauntless devotion to duties, foreshadowing 
no intimations of the fine fruitage of that devotion, 
—the beautiful career of "The Frances Willard of 
the Woman's Missionary Society." 

Returning from Japan as a lonely little widow, 
already impressing her children with her depend- 
ence on them, and looking forward to the time 
when she might lean more fully on their young 
vigor, she did not dream, as she passed rather 
wearily in that winter of 1886 from church to 
church, speaking in response to sweet welcomes- 
home, — she did not dream that her own youth 
would be renewed as the eagles' and that eighteen 
years of her enlarging service even then glorified 
the vistas of her future. 

All that she realized was, that "My experiences 
have taught me to know that the path of duty is 
the only path of true happiness." So that when 
duty meant appearing on the public platform or in 
a church pulpit, it was sturdily met, not shirked. 



86 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

How often in those long ago days, not with 
apology or pretentious hesitation, but out of un- 
alloyed trepidation, she commenced her public 

speeches in this wise: "When asked me to 

give an address upon this occasion, I wrote some- 
thing to this effect: 'I will be glad to be present 
and give an address!' Perhaps if he could have 
been able to see into my heart and mind, he might 
have thought I did not tell him the truth. For if 

I had answered him by saying : ' I feel as if 

I couldn't appear before you, I must beg to be ex- 
cused,' I would have written just as truthfully. 
The same could be said in reference to appearing 
before you now. I am glad to be here, and yet E 
tremble at the thought of what it implies. But it 
is because of my allegiance to my Master and his 
work that I can also find cause for rejoicing in the 
thought that an opportunity has been given to 
present its claims." 

Of one of these first appearances in public, a long- 
known and long-loved co-worker recalls that "Soon 
after Mrs. Krecker's return from Japan she gave 
us an address. While I cannot remember the ad- 
dress, I do remember how timid and really fright- 
ened she was when she appeared before the con- 
gregation. I compared that address with one she 
gave us two years ago, — then she was perfectly at 
home on the platform, and with such grace and 
ease did she address the Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety that day, that many remarked of her ability 
and helpful words." 

Much of Mrs. Krecker's public work was ac- 



The Frances Willard of Our Society, 87 

counts of life in Japan, which were particularly 
prized by her audiences for the intimate acquaint- 
ance with things Japanese which they presented. 
As one widely-read hearer put it, she told about 
the little things of the Japanese e very-day which 
always fascinates the listener with comparisons to 
his own daily life, and which most travelers omit as 
trivial. Of her simple narrative this is a typical 
sample. "We had but landed upon the shores of 
this beautiful isle, when a host of jinrikisha men 
pressed around about on all sides, who, though 
very polite, are none the less persistent; however, 
as the distance to the hotel was short, and we nat- 
urally shrank from being drawn by men, we dis- 
missed them with the first of our Japanese vocab- 
ulary, 'Yoroshi, Yoroshi/ which means, 'your serv- 
ices are not required/ and as we walked on in the 
middle of the street, there being no sidewalks, we 
imagined ourselves looking like some European emi- 
grants wandering along the streets of America. 

"You will be pleased to know that they are very 
kind and polite to each other. If one happens to be 
unoccupied while another with a load begins the 
ascent of a hill, he will invariably assist his fellow 
workman. When we get to a steep hill, we expect 
to walk up, often however they will not permit us 
to do this. Should we insist upon alighting the 
men will be very profound in their bows and 
thanks. In short distances they will easily run 
from five to six miles an hour, and I have known 
them to go from forty to fifty miles a day, resting 
every few hours for lunch. When we were in the 



88 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

country about a week ago, we visited "Dai But- 
zu," the great bronze idol of Japan, starting at 
about five o'clock one bright morning. The dis- 
tance was eighteen miles one way. On reaching 
Kama-kuru, which is the name of the place where 
Dai Butzu," is situated, we spent some hours in 
viewing the idol and the scenery of the surround- 
ing country which is very fine; we then called our 
men and started for home. Imagine our surprise, 
when on nearing home the men ran a race to see 
which would get to town first. The round trip 
being thirty-six miles, we arrived home about four 
o'clock." 

Reminiscent of these early addresses, another 
dear friend wrote : "Well do we remember the inter- 
est manifested by her audience during her first ad- 
dress to the people of East Liberty, Ohio. The de- 
scription of her journey to Japan and her work 
while there was new and of great interest to our 
people at that time, especially when told by herself. 

"At this, our first meeting, although she did not 
speak of it, w r e were particularly impressed with the 
sadness of her sacrifice and the sorrow which had 
come to her only a short time before, and which 
was still fresh in our minds. The Christ-spirit 
which prompted her, after all this, to leave her 
family and take up the work of the church; this, 
with her willingness always to respond to its 
calls; her charity for others, and unbounded faith 
were most beautifully exemplified in our further 
acquaintance with her as she visitd us some twelve 
or thirteen times afterwards, on missions of help- 



The Frances Willard of Oar Society. 89 

fulness for the cause of our Woman's Missionary 
Society, giving addresses, organizing and in many 
ways directing and encouraging the work. 

"Of the many inspiring addresses to which we 
listened, the two given at Mount Olive, Pennsyl- 
vania, some five years later, deserve mention. The 
vividness with which she portrayed the condition 
of the Japanese, and her touching experiences 
among them, melted many hearts. One sister came 
to the writer afterward and said, 'Cannot we give 
five dollars of our Woman's Missionary Society 
money to foreign missions? I do feel so sorry for 
those poor heathen children !' This being before 
the foreign fund was started by our women. 

"It was a 'red-letter Sabbath-day' for our people 
at that place. Although in a rural district, the 
church was crowded both morning and evening." 

There had been nearly a year of public speaking. 
When Mrs. Krecker appeared before the first an- 
nual meeting of the Woman's Missionary Society, 
in October, 1886, in Naperville, Illinois, — memor- 
able introduction to a memorable little organiza- 
tion, whose fate in a measure was linked with hers, 
of much of whose progress she was destined to be 
the high priestess, and of many of whose largest 
attainments she was appointed the good guardian 
angel. Friends Mrs. Krecker had far and wide in 
ever enlarging numbers, but none bound more 
closely to her heart than the women with whom 
she planned, prayed and worked in yearly session 
for the cause which she, with them, had espoused. 

To her diffident spirit perhaps came no sweet 



90 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

premonitions, no heavenly visions of these things 
as she rose face to face with the littl ecompany in 
the sunny little Illinois church to deliver the ad- 
dress which proved but the first of seventeen an- 
nual messages given in the same society. She 
feelingly began: 

"I have thought much of this meeting. For the 
last few weeks I have thought of, and prayed for 
it every day; and I imagined it would be a grand 
and soul-inspiring occasion. However, the realiza- 
tion far exceeds the anticipation. It is not only a 
grand meeting, but it is a feast to the soul, even a 
feast of 'fat things' in the Lord. The joy that it 
causes me to see and meet with so many representa- 
tives of the bands of women who are willing to give 
of their time, their talent, their strength and their 
means for the cause of missions cannot be ex- 
pressed. May the number of such women be mul- 
tiplied a hundred-fold ! 

"For the work to be done is immense, and the 
call for help from the dying millions of those who 
are yet in heathen darkness is soul-melting; and 
the cry of our dear friends on the field is 'Work- 
ers, workers, workers/ In a recent letter from 
Japan, — said, ' I wish I could multiply my- 
self so as to be able to respond to all of the calls 
that present themselves to one for work.' He al- 
ready has three or four Bible Classes a week, and 
as many preaching services, besides numerous other 
important duties. The work is so vast and so ur- 
gent that there is ever danger of the missionaries 
overtaxing themselves. I rejoice, dear sisters, in 



The Frances Willard of Our Society, 91 

the noble efforts you are making to have the women 
of our church realize their duty toward the women 
in heathen lands. It gives me much joy to be able 
to say that the women of Japan among whom it 
has been my happy privilege to labor, appreciate 
your love for them in thus trying to save them. 
And a vast field of labor is open before us in the 
country of Japan. The women of Japan need wo- 
men." 

While the peculiar fitness of woman to minister 
to the wants of woman was emphasized by Mrs. 
Krecker, it needs only a perusal of her annual ad- 
dresses as president of the society, to appreciate her 
breadth of view with respect to missionary enter- 
prise; her faith in co-operation of the most far- 
reaching sort, including all the elements of the 
church and religious organizations for the best ex- 
pression of the missionary spirit. "We need not set 
apart a portion of ourselves and, as it were, label it 
'Missionary Department/ " she said in an annual 
address, "Let the missionary be our state of being, 
our general attitude, our spirit. We want our 
church to be one grand, great mission; we want ev- 
ery aspect of its work to glow with a halo of mis- 
sionary interest; we want every member to be a 
missionary. Had I the power, I would not stop 
at organizing a Woman's Missionary Society in 
every congregation and making every woman a 
member of it, I would want so to enlarge our bor- 
ders as to admit every man into a full membership 
and would then want to incorporate the society, 
as it would then stand, into the body of the church 



92 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

so that it would no longer be a distinct society, but 
would be the church itself, so that no one would en- 
ter into the communion of the church but would by 
that act identify himself with missions at home 
and abroad. Then, indeed, the church would be 
able to fulfill her functions, her peculiar function 
of evangelizing the w r orld. 

"It is with this conception of the function of the 
church and of missions that we wish to approach 
our work. 

"We wish thoroughly to understand, and we wish 
to permeate our work with the idea that the church 
fundamentally, is a missionary force, and that it is 
our aim to assist in infusing spirit throughout the 
church. 

"When we come to put our ideas into practice, 
we will find it would be helpful if we could identify 
missionary work more closely with what is ordinarily 
termed the usual church work. In the past 
there has been some suggestion of this on my part, 
and there have been some manifestations of it in 
some of our societies, and I believe that by laving 
emphasis on it and by trying to work it out, we 
shall gain much toward the achievement of our 
aim." 

Said an old time friend and associate in the Wo- 
man's Missionary Society, when remarking on Mrs. 
Krecker's presidential addresses, t4 I often say to 
myself how broad Mrs. Krecker is!" 

Before Mrs. Krecker was called upon to make a 
presidential address, however, she had a report as 
general organizer to give. This office of general 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 93 

organizer was created in 1891 and given to Mrs. 
Krecker, the society realizing the need of further 
measures to stimulate interest and growth, and 
deciding to appoint some one whose duties should 
be to travel in the interests of the society, reviving 
interest where it seemed to lag, and organizing new 
societies with all possible congregations. 

While no complete record of M<rs. Krecker's 
work as organizer has been kept, she is known to 
have organized no less than one hundred and twen- 
ty-eight auxiliaries, and to have visited and organ- 
ized every conference of the church save one, the 
Oregon, which had several times made unsuccess- 
ful efforts to have her come, and never ceased plan- 
ning with that end in view. 

"As a worker in the missionary interests of the 
church, she gave about twenty-six years of actual 
service," says the corresponding secretary of the 
society. "In 1897 s ^ e spent two months in Iowa, 
visited 24 churches and made 71 addresses — hold- 
ing four services in some of the churches and or- 
ganizing nineteen Woman's Missionary Societies 
and one Mission Band. The same year she visited 
three conference sessions in the East and two 
Branch conventions. 

"That year she visited in all forty-one places, 
held seventy-six meetings, gave eighty-nine ad- 
dresses and organized twenty-two auxiliaries. In 
1896 she attended eight camp-meetings. I do not 
have the number of societies organized that year. 
In 1899 >he attended four conference Branch con- 
ventions. Two of these she helped organize. She 



94 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

organized twenty-one auxiliaries this same year, 
and made fifty-eight addresses. 

"As I have looked over the records at my com- 
mand I am filled with wonder at the amount ox 
work she accomplished for the church." 

One of the leaders in the Woman's Missionary 
movement and a cherished friend of Mrs. Kreck- 
er, was one of the many who was roused to interest 
and zeal in mission work through Mrs. Krecker's 
journeyings. She says, "It was the first address 
made by her that started the missionary fire in my 
heart, and I can look back to that visit and thank 
God that she not only interested others but me, and 
I am so thankful for it." 

Of an Illinois visit, a former editor of Missionary 
Tidings, and dear companion in missionary work, 
affectionately writes: "It was during a five days' 
visit in our country home at Maple Park that I 
learned to know Mrs. Krecker better than in all 
previous years before. She was wending her way 
Eastward, but would not go at once, because on 
her way she wanted to take in the Ohio Branch 
Convention, and so she waited in Chicago, spend- 
ing the time with friends. This was in June, 1902, 
and the weather was intensely warm for that time 
of the year. 

"In a letter to me concerning Woman's Mission- 
ary Society matters, she mentioned the fact of her 
waiting. I was not slow to see my opportunity, 
and the return mail carried her an invitation to 
spend at least a part of the time with me. The 
time was fixed to include a Sabbath, so that she 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 95 

could present the cause of missions to our congre- 
gation, and it proved, indeed, to be a Sabbath-day 
of blessing. I think I never heard Mrs. Krecker, 
at any time or place, speak as earnestly and elo- 
quently as she did for us on that beautiful June 
day. She spoke both morning and evening to large 
and attentive congregations. 

"But I was so absorbed by my enjoyment of her 
presence that I scarcely realized the uplift that her 
visit gave to our Woman's Missionary Society, 
until my attention was called to it by others. There 
was not much diversion in our quiet country home, 
and she seemed to enjoy the temporary freedom 
from all ic?traint of social formality and obliga- 
tion. For five days we ate, and slept, and visited, 
and rode, and worked together, and I had a precious 
opportunity of studying the abandon of her life. 
So completely did she give herself up to rest, that, 
with the exception of the Sabbath day, I think we 
both ofttimes forgot that she was president of our 
Woman's Board. She had a keen sense of humor, 
loved nature, had abundant resources for entertain- 
ment within herself, and seemed to live constantly 
in the presence of her Saviour. Over and over 
again, as some vexing thought or disturbing ques- 
tion would assert itself to either one of us, she 
would simply and quietly lay it aside with the re- 
mark, 'We will tell Jesus.' Her natural reticence 
concerning herself and others lent an additional sa- 
credness to her occasional confidences. 

"That her one concern was to please Jesus was 
again confirmed to my mind on the Sabbath morn- 



96 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ing. Together we were preparing for the services 
of the day, when she requested some trifling as- 
sistance in her toilet preparations. Having com- 
plied with her request, I said, laughingly, 'There, 
Mrs. Krecker, that's fine ! You see I want our 
president to look just right to-day.' She turned 
quickly, her eyes filled, and laying her hand upon 
my shoulder, she replied, 'My dear sister, if I may 
but please him to-day, I am satisfied.' 

"Anything at all that could be utilized for the 
cause of missions was an object of interest to her. 
Just outside my study window I had placed a box 
and made a snug, safe shelter for a hen while hatch- 
ing her young. That brood of chicks, I said, shall 
be my Thank-Offering next November. When 
once Mrs. Krecker learned of the good intentions 
of the plain old hen, her interest in her never abat- 
ed, but with her own hands fed and cared for my 
"Missionary hen" until the close of her visit. 

"That she could not be diverted from what she 
believed to be her duty the following incident will 
show: During the earlier years of our church or- 
ganization, when foreign work seemed well nigh 
out of the question, it took consecration and cour- 
age to plead the cause of the heathen world. And 
yet Mrs. Krecker bravely faced frowns and dis- 
couragement in order that she might keep the cause 
before the people. She had made a date for a cer- 
tain camp-meeting, but shortly before she was to 
speak, she was accosted by a minister, a high offi- 
cial in the church, with the request that she speak 
for the Woman's Missionary Society, but refrain 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 97 

from urging the claims of foreign interest. A more 
combative nature might have resented the affront, 
a less courageous one become disheartened; but 
Mrs. Krecker replied to him, 'Brother, I have my 
message from the Lord, just as you have yours. 
You have a right to demand it, and if you do, I will 
refrain from speaking what was in my heart to 
say, but you must bear the responsibility, if I fail 
in doing my whole duty.' Of course he would not 
bear such a responsibility and Mrs. Krecker never 
spoke more eloquently for foreign work than she 
did that day. 

"She spent a Sabbath in our home at Highland 
Park just before the last Board meeting that was 
held in Naperville. But the time was so taken up 
with services, and the following day with routine 
work preparatory to the coming Board meeting, 
that I do not think anything special occurred. The 
memory of that visit is simply a gracious benedic- 
tion upon our home." 

A long valued acquaintance remembers Mrs. 
Krecker' s last visit at Naperville, the scene of an 
early western visit and a favorite spot with her. 
"Our parsonage is on a beautiful elevated corner 
lot — just across the street from the North West- 
ern College, with its large campus covered with 
grass and trees. The yard of the parsonage is 
large, with fruit trees and grape arbor garden 
spot, and is just the place for a missionary to rest. 
Mrs. Krecker spent nearly a week with us at this 
place. She used to walk up and down the walk, 
and in the evening sit on the veranda and enjoy the 
7 



98 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

quiet restful place. It was during this visit that 
Mrs. Byers and Beatrice took us to drive in the 
country. What a happy day we had ! It was one 
of those bright, sunshiny days, not too warm, just 
perfect for a drive. From here she went to Pierce- 
ville, where she spent the Sabbath, speaking to 
large crowds/' 

Of visits to the Des Moines Branch, a friend, 
whose meeting with Mrs. Krecker instantly begot 
mutual love and admiration, retains many beautiful 
memories : "When the organization of our Des 
Moines Branch was in contemplation and some of 
us felt reluctant in the matter of assuming the re- 
sponsibility, her sweet words of counsel and as- 
surance and her earnest prayer that courage and 
strength might be given and the work undertaken 
and carried forward in the name of the Lord,- — 
cannot soon be forgotten. 

"During several conventions we had the pleas- 
ure and benefit of her presence. The last time at 
Cedar Rapids, in July, 1902. On Monday of the 
convention, as we were nearly ready to adjourn, 
she was obliged to withdraw in order to make her 
train going East. Business was suspended for a 
moment, while we joined in singing 'We'll Never 
Say Good-bye in Heaven.' She passed out of the 
door waving her handkerchief and smiling back to 
us with the light of heaven on her face. We did 
not know that it was our last glimpse on earth of 
one on whom we so largely depended for guidance 
in our work, and to whom we were so closely drawn 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 99 

in Christian love. Dear Mrs. Krecker was truly an 
inspiration to the sisterhood of our church/' 

In recollecting the events of her first visit to 
Des Moines Conference Branch, and other happen- 
ings of the same summer twelve months later, Mrs. 
Krecker wrote : "J ust one y ear a S° I was traveling 
toward the Des Moines Conference, a section of 
our church territory toward which I had been look- 
ing expectantly and hopefully for several years. 
Now as I am seated at my table to carry out the 
wishes of our Woman's Board of Missions, by writ- 
ing a condensed report of my year's work, beginning 
with the work in Iowa, it all rises up before me like 
a great panorama. The journey, the cordial re- 
ception everywhere, the interest manifested in our 
work; the eager, interested, expectant audiences; 
the sympathy manifested in my personal welfare; 
the blessedness of my labors in trying to present 
the claims of missions upon our people; the many 
kindnesses received, have all been crowded into a 
few moments of time and have filled my heart 
with joy and gratitude for the work I was able to 
do among our dear consecrated people in the Des 
Moines Conference, and has renewed the longing 
desire to see them and worship with them again, 
'That I may impart unto you some spiritual gift 
to the end that you may be established, that is, that 
with you I may be comforted in you, each of us by 
the others' faith, both your and mine. And I 
would not have you ignorant of my increasing 
mention of you in my prayers making request that 
I may seek further fruit in you.' 

Lrfa- 



ioo Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

"During the two months that were spent in Iowa 
I made seventy-one addresses, holding four serv- 
ices in some of the churches. Nineteen Woman's 
Missionary Societies were organized and one Mis- 
sion Band; two others promised to be organized. 
At Afton, Correctionville, Le Mars, and at Manly 
I found societies organized, with deeply interested 
and devoted workers. They now have twenty-five 
societies, and I had hoped a Branch would be or- 
ganized ere this. While I have been disappointed in 
this respect, I still am full of hope that they will 
soon be organized and will continue to grow and 
become a powerful organization for the advance- 
ment of our Lord's cause. Judging from the warm 
welcomes and the earnest, repeated invitations to 
come again, I might have thought I would be called 
upon to return to Iowa in a few months. 

"In the East I took part in two Woman's Mis- 
sionary meetings and one Mission Band anniver- 
sary. I visited the three Eastern Conferences, — 
the East Pennsylvania, the Central Pennsylvania 
and the Pittsburg. I also had the privilege of being 
present at the East Pennsylvania Conference Branch 
Meeting and the Central Pennsylvania Conference 
Branch Meeting, both of which were seasons of 
great encouragement because of the good work 
done, the development of talent and the spiritual 
growth among our members. I visited Center Dis- 
trict, of the Central Pennsylvania Conference, 
where I organized two new societies. This dis- 
trict a few years ago had no societies. Now it has 
half of all the societies in the conference. The 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 101 

success of the societies on that district have proven 
that rural districts are good ground for Woman's 
Missionary Societies, I visited five camp-meet- 
ings." 

In making her official reports to the society space 
limitations alone prevented Mrs. Krecker from 
mentioning by name all those who entertained, or 
in one way or another were associated with her. 
Often, in spite of herself, she inserted such inci- 
dental recollections, only again to curtail the whole 
and condense all her appreciative reminiscence into 
some little summary, such as this : 

"I started home after an absence of three months. 
During that time, although absent from home, I 
was the constant recipient of kindness. The mem- 
ory of the many dear sisters whom I could not 
mention here, is written upon the tablet of my 
heart, and I pray God to bless them and prosper 
them in their labors of love. I am greatly indebted 
to the brethren whose fields of labor I visited for 
the assistance rendered/' 

Yet, as Mrs. Vincent observes, "The many kind 
honors and attentions she received she always took 
as being accorded the work she represented rather 
than simply to herself personally." 

Details that had to be omitted in official records, 
were entertainingly presented in her descriptions at 
home of her varied fortunes. Of these characteris- 
tic extracts are : "I had a very pleasant week at the 
camp-meetings. I had good accommodations. I 
met many fine people. I secured twelve subscribers 
for Tidings and organized an auxiliary with eight- 



io2 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

een members. Among the fine people I met was 

Mrs. . I had dinner in her home, and had 

a picnic dinner with the family and about half a 

dozen other friends of theirs. Mrs. was very 

cordial and invited me to come to her home any 
time during the camp-meeting. She said she would 
be glad to entertain me at night any time or all 
the time. She also told me if I would come back 
next summer she would be pleased to have me ar- 
range to spend a week or more with her. She said 
She is sure she could give me a nice time, and she 
would like me to meet some of her friends." 

"The son of one of our members went to the al- 
tar. He had been addicted to drinking so much, 
that few people had any faith in his ever again 
reforming. I was asked to pray with him; I did 
so. He was happily converted. He then told me 
that I had started him to repentance. He told me of 
the preachers; that he was much pleased with my 
work on Sunday, and that he put something into the 
collection. Then afterward he thought to him- 
self, 'Well, well, now I have given something to 
give the gospel to the heathen, and I myself am 
going down to destruction/ He could not forget 
the thought and made up his mind to change. 

"Mr. said he heard so many good reports 

of our meetings. Among other things one brother 
told him, 'We have had the Bishop and others, but 
this was the best.' He had also heard that we had 
a very good meeting on Tuesday afternoon. We 

did have a blessed time. Mr. had told me 

if I would promise to speak in his church, he would 



The Prances Willard of Our Society. 103 

have one hundred ladies there that aftrnoon at 
four o'clock. But we had our meeting arranged 
for in a private house. I told him I couldn't. I 
thought it was very kind of him to tell me for my 
encouragement. He said one brother said he could 
not speak too highly of my effort. One young man 
sent me a lot of hot-house flowers. And I had felt 
a little blue over it all! I had rather felt as if I 
had not done very well!" 

"I also met the Rev. Mr. at the conven- 
tion. He is stationed just about twelve miles from 

— . He was very glad to see me. Nothing 

would do but that I stop off and give him a visit. 
He has several times told me he is as glad as if his 
mother had come. I think he feels a little lonely 
sometimes, being so far from all his relations. He 
has a very pleasant wife, and a dear little girl six- 
teen months old. I came home with him last even- 
ing after supper. They ordered some ice cream 
for the evening. They are doing all they can to 
make it pleasant for me. They want to go fishing 
this afternoon; a few miles out of town I believe. 
I suppose we will have a good time. ,, 

"I am glad we have all been too busy to get 
homesick. Of course I often feel that it would be 
nice to have all my children around me; but yet as 
long as I am kept occupied by my work, I am con- 
tented, especially as long as the children each are 
also occupied by their own duties. Above all when 
I have reason to think they are contented and are 
trying to do what is right. I am more and more 
impressed with this truth — that God's laws are not 



104 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

arbitrary laws, but that everything that he asks of 
lis is for our own good and development." 

"Our women in the Conference are fine 

people. Some of them are talented women. They 
have numerous difficulties to contend with, but they 
are brave, noble and self-sacrificing women in many 
instances. Mrs. is a good and gifted wo- 
man. She is timid, but she goes right ahead with 
her duties. You will remember she is the president 
of the Branch. 

"On Monday I went to . We had a re- 
freshing rain, but we could have no meeting. I was 
very sorry, because they expected to organize there 
— the pastor did, and I am sure the people would 
have been willing. The pastor will attempt, and I 
am sure he will succeed. 

"I came to last evening. We have 

a large congregation at this place and a good Wo- 
man's Missionary Society. I had a very warm re- 
ception. This afternoon I am to meet the women. 
We had an appreciative audience last evening. I 
spoke over an hour. Some said they could have 
listened all night. One sister said I held the audi- 
ence 'Spell bound.' At one sister said she 

had never seen such a quiet audience. It was a very 
warm day at that. 

"Such remarks prove the interest and apprecia- 
tion. In the prayers they thank the Lord for what 
they have heard. Remarks of that kind keep up 
my courage. I fear there would be danger of me 
getting so tired of hearing myself that I might 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 105 

get discouraged at my efforts if I didn't realize that 
the people appreciate them." 

"I wrote you a letter in the early part of this 
week; so that you will have heard of my move- 
ments. Of course, it is not all plesure; but a great 
deal of real delight is connected with my work. 
My greatest difficulties lie in the fact that so many 
people are indifferent in regard to the work which 
I represent. Yet I am glad for the degree of in- 
terest I do find. Some of our people are deeply in- 
terested. We have some very enthusiastic workers. 
Some people make real sacrifices for the cause. 
And they rejoice in the privilege of helping to ex- 
tend Christ's kingdom. 

"My change is doing me good. My experiences 
are full of interest; not without weariness, of 
course, but I take all the rest possible. Yesterday 
I had a drive of twenty-five miles across the plains 
of Nebraska, not a tree to be seen for miles. All 
the houses in this part of the country are made of 
sod. The parsonage is a frame building. But they 
have no trees or flowers. A few wild flowers grow 
on the prairie. They are three miles from the 
church. It was after nine o'clock last night when 
service began. We had a church filled with attentive 
listeners. We organized an auxiliary with six 
members. It was after twelve when we reached the 
parsonage. This forenoon I will be taken on a 
two hours' drive. I am to have a meeting in a 
private house. 

"Yesterday I had to stop here and have not had 
time to write since. We started with two horses 



io6 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

and a buggy, Mr. and Mrs. and I. We 

drove for about two hours among hills and canyons. 
It is a wonderful country. I have been able to 
realize that I am in the Wild West. The meeting 
in the afternoon consisted of twelve grown people. 
We had a very interesting meeting. A little after 
four o'clock we started for the evening appoint- 
ment, about eight miles distant. A storm seemed 
to be coming up, but we started. We drove from 
one canvon into another. What added to the inter- 

est or excitement was that Mr. M did not 

know the way. We didn't know where we were; 
then we saw some one working; we had been driv- 
ing across ploughed fields trying to find the road. 

Mr. asked the man, 'Can you tell me where 

I am ?' He said, 'You are down in the potato patch 
just now/ He directed us so that we finally reached 
our destination at half past six o'clock. 

"The storm did not overtake us, but it soon came, 
and it thundered and lightened until after eleven 
o'clock. We could have no meeting. I am to come 
back for a Sunday afternoon service, about twelve 
miles it will be. We were with very nice people in 
a sod house. We are at another place for dinner, in 
a sod house again. After dinner we are going to 

, where I am to speak this evening. We are 

in a canyon with no other house in sight, no trees 
and no flowers. Inside the house they seem very 
comfortable." 

To her co-workers our traveler was reporting: 

"At I met Miss , who is seriously 

thinking of becoming a foreign missionary. She 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 107 

and her father drove ten miles on a very stormy 
evening to attend the missionary meeting. Miss 

is teaching just now, but intends continuing 

her education in some higher school of learning. I 
hope when she is ready to go we may have a place 
ready for her, and not oblige her to join another 
denomination in order to take up the work she feels 

called to, as was the case with Miss , now 

in South America, under the Methodists. I also 
met at this place, probably the oldest officer of our 

society, Miss , who is seventy-five years of 

age, is the president of the auxiliary. Her 

sister, Mrs. , who is eighty years of age, is 

also an active member of that society. With the 
loyal examples of 'Aunt Harriet' and 'Aunt Eliza/ 
none of our women need plead age as an excuse for 
not entering the work. 

"While waiting in the station at I met 

two Japanese women, Miss , who is attend- 
ing school in this country, and Mrs. , pres- 
ident and founder of the first Christian Industrial 
school for girls in Tokio, Japan. The school was 
founded some years ago for the children of the 
poor, to educate them to become self-supporting, 
and at the same time develop a Christian character. 
The school opened with thirteen scholars and now 
numbers forty, the first class of six members grad- 
uating last June. Increasing numbers of appli- 
cations for admission had to be refused and Mrs. 

— is now in this country to collect funds for 

enlarging the school. 

"These ladies' presence here emphasizes anew 



108 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

the great need of our heathen sisters. Japanese wo- 
men have been called the most womanly women in 
the world; their position in many respects is much 
superior to that of most Oriental women, yet it is a 
sad truth that they are also among the most degrad- 
ed, and Mrs. 's circular announces that with 

all the recent progress in Japan, 'Less has been ac- 
tually accomplished in this (the elevation of women) 
than in any other department of national life/ 
May we, whom God has so graciously favored, do 
all in our power to help them !" 

Meantime, side by side with the office of General 
Organizer ever since the autumn of 1892, Mrs. 
Krecker has been carrying the presidency, retain- 
ing both until death did her part from all matters 
earthly, having added to them now and again such 
other posts as the wishes of her comrades and ex- 
igency demanded, such as Superintendent of the 
Young People's Missionary Society of the East 
Pennsylvania Conference Branch, or editor of the 
Young People's Missionary Society department of 
the Tidings. 

It is in Mrs. Krecker's review of the progress of 
the society during the preceding ten years, which 
she made on the tenth anniversary of her occupancy 
of the presidential chair, that some of the projects 
for which she was mainly, if not wholly responsible, 
were enumerated, although it requires a reading of 
all her addresses to appreciate the effort she gave 
to every feature of the society's work, and to realize 
her pracitcal efforts and suggestions for having it 
increase in all good words and works. Her annual 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 109 

addresses gave her much thought, and were pre- 
pared with the realization that they would touch the 
very pulse of the missionary machine in the Wo- 
man's Board. Furthermore, that in their printed 
form they would be addressed to the entire society. 
As one of her daughter's remarked : "The Krecker 
year is divided into two parts, before the annual 
meeting, and after." 

Among the features of Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety work suggested by Mrs. Krecker, the Woman's 
Missionary Society Day at Camp-meetings, Self- 
Denial Week, Missionary Rallies at the church col- 
leges, annual missionary sermons by the church 
clergy are a few. But it is only by a perusal of her 
presidential addresses that an understanding may 
be had of the careful inquiry she gave to all depart- 
ments of the society; with what breadth she con- 
strued its functions; how fervently she strove to 
bring, devise and execute the proper means for the 
fulfilment of these functions, and how many of the 
ideas she proposed found fruition in the develop- 
ments of the society. 

Relative to one phase of her work, the Rev. Dr. 
W. M. Stanford, editor of the Evangelical, and 
long Mrs. Krecker's staunch friend, has acutely 
noted that "She came home from Japan almost in 
the very opening of our internal church strife, and 
for ten years thereafter, on this account, as the 
General Organizer of our Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety, she had to work against a very discourag- 
ing tide. As a Bishop of the church at that time, 
we had a good chance to know something about 



no Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

this. While the church was in the throes of battle 
at home, thus demanding all her financial strength 
for this purpose, it was a very hard thing to get 
consideration for the further extension of "Wo- 
man's Special Work." In those trying days, of 
which our now young men know but little, we had 
to proceed on the principle of "but one thing at a 
time/' or possibly endanger our very existence as 
a church. This good sister, therefore, in traveling 
Over the church as she did, was often made to 
breathe a very "cool" atmosphere, even in "hot 
weather." This was not because of any coolness 
toward her personally, but because of the untimeli- 
ness of the work in which she was engaged. Un- 
der such untoward circumstances, coupled yet with 
the natural stupor of a large class of uninformed 
Christians about foreign missionary work, many a 
less consecrated woman would have quailed and 
given up the seemingly unequal struggle. But on 
she went, commissioned from on high, and thus un- 
daunted by circumstances or conditions, broke into 
communities with her special work wherever pos- 
sible, until at last the unremitting efforts of our 
consecrated sisterhood are being crowned with en- 
couraging fruitage in the Chinese Empire. Mrs. 
Krecker carried with her a most genial, courteous 
and womanly bearing, and this was coupled with a 
patience that was almost inexhaustible; and yet, in 
overcoming obstacles she pushed her claim with a 
vigor born of an invincible faith in God's goodness 
and promises, and with a pluck and energy that was 
well nigh indomitable. In public speech she was 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. in 

clear in statement, forcible in argument, and prac- 
tical in application. She cared not for earthly 
praise or glory. Her life activities seem not to have 
moved forward from any mere motive for earthly 
gain or selfish consideration. She was actuated 
by higher and nobler incentives. In all these things 
she kept her eye on her heavenly inheritance. She 
permitted nothing to intervene to obscure her bright 
vision of that "building of God, an house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

One of Mrs. Krecker's bright particular schemes 
was a foreign fund, a project established by the 
Woman's Missionary Society for gathering means 
to form a foreign mission, set forth in 1895, and 
carried to a successful issue in 1900, when the mis- 
sion was a reality, and Rev. and Mrs. C. Newton 
Dubs, highly valued personal frioids of Mrs. 
Krecker's, sailed for China. 

Too many hearts were centered on the attainment 
of this consummation, too many lips prayed for it, 
too many hands and heads had worked for it for 
the achievement to be credited to any one person. 
But the fact remains that more than one clergyman 
of high standing in the church has remarked to one 
or another of Mrs. Krecker's children, that if it 
had not been for their mother he did not think there 
would be a mission in China to-day. 

These definite facts, however, even for the ground 
they are intended to cover, are somewhat frag- 
mentary, and even were they complete, would not 
include many achievements as president which can- 
not be tabulated, and the lovely spiritual influences 



H2 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

of her character and personality which can never 
be computed or recorded, save as they remain as 
beautiful imprints on the minds of those who knew 
or heard or saw her. 

To this President and Organizer in the course of 
the passing years, ever here and there, came some 
little added responsibility, or some brief rest or 
diversion, every experience enriching the treasures 
of her unfolding career. Ever since her first years 
home from Japan she had held some local or county 
office in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
among some of whose leaders she formed pleasant 
friendships, and for whose visiting representatives 
her Fredericksburg home was headquarters. 

In 1893 she writes: "I reached Chicago in the 
morning at seven o'clock, where I was met at the 

Union depot by our beloved sister, Mrs. , at 

whose hospitable home I was cordially welcomed 
and invited to make my home during my stay in 
Illinois. Those only who by experience know what it 
means to leave their homes to remain from loved 
ones months at a time, know how to appreciate the 
offer of a pleasant home. 

"On the morning of May 17, I started for the 
World's Congress of Representative Women, which 
convened in the Permanent Memorial Art Palace 
of that city, and was the first of the series of 
World's Congresses to be held there during the 
World's Fair. 

"The object of this Congress was to 'celebrate the 
remarkable progress and achievements of women, 
especially since the discovery of this continent in 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 113 

1492/ It comprised 'all organizations of women 
of what ever name or object, and all distinguished 
women, whether they belong to any particular or- 
ganization or not.' These met 'on absolutely equal 
terms, for the advancement of women everywhere.' 
The fact that so many women, representing nu- 
merous countries and all possible organizations of 
their sex, were able to lay aside entirely their in- 
dividual differences and work together as with one 
mind, was truly wonderful. 

"One reason why everything was so harmonious 
was because the women had not come to discuss 
their grievances, but rather to find points of agree- 
ment. And this lesson was learned, that however 
varied the methods of work, they are all women 
with one aim — the uplifting of womanhood, and 
through it of humanity. 

"To hear and see so many brave and noble wo- 
men, some of whom had spent a lifetime in laboring 
for the betterment of their fellow beings, was soul- 
stirring and made me feel as if I could realize that 
the earth is indeed being drawn heavenward. I 
could not help wishing that all women might have 
enjoyed the opportunity of being present in such a 
gathering. 

"Particularly did I long to have all our women 
share the inspiration which came to me. I felt 
that we should take new courage to do our part to- 
ward elevating mankind, toward bringing them 
nearer God, especially when we call to mind that 
it was the self-sacrifice which a few high-souled wo- 
men displayed for many years, and then love for 
8 



H4 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

mankind which had brought about so great a change 
in women and made this Congress possible. My 
principal duty was as a representative of our Wo- 
man's Missionary Society to read a report of the 
work of our organization. " 

At this Congress of Representative Women Mrs. 
Krecker was also requested to speak on the Ethics 
of Dress. Her talk opened with these three queries : 
"Shall we express our individuality in dress or be 
governed by fashion? Shall we dress according 
to our own convictions regardless of the opinion of 
others? Considering the state of the world, how 
much time, thought and money shall go to dress 
beyond hygienic, decent clothing?" It closed with 
this beautiful quotation from Mrs. Dinah Muloch 
Craik, whose pretty and popular story of 'John Hal- 
ifax, Gentleman," was much admired by Mrs. 
Krecker: "Let us only so clothe ourselves that this 
frail body of ours while it does last, may not be 
unpleasing in the sight of those who love us; and 
let us so use it in this life that in the life to come 
it may be found worthy to be 'clothed upon with 
its Maker's own glorious immortality.' " 

A dear comrade remembers Mrs. Krecker's visit 
to the White City: "It was in the May of 1893 that 
Mrs. Krecker spent a few weeks in Chicago. My 

sister, Mrs. , who lived on the south side at 

that time, invited Mrs. Krecker and myself to make 
her a visit, and from there she took us to the 
World's Fair. It was soon after the opening of 
the Fair. A great many of the buildings were not 
complete, but the Women's Building, the Art Build- 



The Frances IV Mar d of Our Society. 115 

ing and very many others were well furnished. Mrs. 
Krecker was especially attracted to the pictures in 
the Art Building and wanted to spend all her time 
admiring the magnificent painting. She would sit 
down in front of the pictures and apparently seemed 
lost in admiration of the beautiful scenes before 
her." 

During the summer of 1893 came an especially 
and ever treasured pleasure in a trip to Northfield's 
Moody Summer Convention, whither, to their de- 
lightful Northfield home, Doctor (now Bishop) 
H. B. Hartzler, then connected with the Moody 
Bible Schools, and Mrs. Hartzler, her long-loved 
friends, had invited her. 

Says Mrs. Hartzler of that summer: "During 
her visit with us in August, 1893, in Northfield, it 
was a great pleasure to her to meet quite a number 
of returned missionaries present at the gathering. 
Dr. Pierson had charge of the Missionary Day, 
when all missionaries were asked to be seated on 
the platform. I urged her to go at his request, 
which she did. After an earnest speech from Dr. 
Pierson on the topic in question, she, having been 
asked to speak, told of the great need of work and 
workers. 

"And I shall never forget how her face so sweet 
and beautiful at all times — shone with interest and 
fervor as she stood before that large audience. 
Each speaker was given but five minutes, but Dr. 
Pierson requested her to exceed that limit, as his 
own heart was touched by her earnestness. After 
the service all the missionaries were invited to a tea 



n6 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

served at Dr. Pierson's home, on the pretty green 
lawn; and in this of course your mother shared. I 
shall not forget how she enjoyed the Bible lectures ; 
which she drank in 'like fresh, cooling, spring 
water/ as she remarked to us one day on her re- 
turn from the Auditorium. 

"Mrs. Tel Sono was our guest at the same time, 
and what Japanese chats were carried on at the 
tea-table! Mrs. Tel Sono was much in love with 
your mother, and was always ready to answer any 
inquiries put to her. Your mother also gave a talk 
at the School for Young Men at Mt. Hermon, which 
was of great interest to the 400 young men students 
there. And she spoke at several ladies' missionary 
meetings at which I presided. 

"Oh, how she did feast on the precious words of 
Mr. Moody ! We frequently 'compared notes' after 
the meetings, and hers were always complete. One 
evening, after attending a lecture by Professor F. 
B. Meyer, she said: 'Do not disturb me; I must 
write down some of the good thoughts.' I forgot 
her injunction and spoke to her — she shook her 
head and smiled. Afterward she said, 'Do you re- 
member how heavenly it seemed to-day in that 
building?' Those days spent with us at Northfield 
remain fresh in our memories. 

"In a letter written just a week before her home- 
going she said, 'How often I think of the precious 
days spent in your delightful home and the talks 
on the subject (missions) so dear to us both.' But 
we both are laid aside, as it seems, for the present; 
but all things work together for good to them that 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 117 

love God — and we love him. I want to thank you 
and the good Bishop for the messages of love just 
before your illness in July. I prize them very high- 
ly and have often felt grieved that I was not able 
to answer them/ " 

August of the following summer, 1894, Mrs. 
Krecker, with her family, spent at the Pennsylvania 
Chautauqua at Mt. Gretna, in a cottage adjoining 
that of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Capp, of Lebanon, 
Pennsylvania, whose long and precious friendship 
dated from the old Lebanon days. Here she made 
an address on Japanese life, and among many other 
acquaintances much enjoyed her conversations on 
pure food and cookery standards with Mrs. S. T. 
Rorer. the authority on culinary matters, exchanged 
products of the kitchen with Mrs. Rorer, and was 
the only one at the Chautauqua who could supply 
that lady with whole wheat flour when the famous 
cook's own supply was exhausted. Here, too, she 
relished her conventions with the late Bishop 
Vincent of the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose 
brother she had well known in her young woman- 
hood. 

A few years later she attended the ninetieth an- 
niversary of the Pennsylvania Society, held in Phil- 
adelphia, in 1898, writing of it that, "Clergymen 
from Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran 
and other denominations were there participating 
with prayer and Scripture reading, and then, after 
a resume of the society's work by its secretary, and 
some of the stirring hymns handed down from 
Luther, rendered by students from a theological 



n8 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

seminary of the denomination bearing his name, the 
beatitudes were read, first in English and then in 
twenty-nine foreign languages, in many cases by 
natives, illustrating, though not by any means ex- 
haustively, the variety of lands into which the so- 
ciety has translated the Bible and the number of 
lands into which it has introduced Scripture truths. 
I read the Japanese. 

"After further music, Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, of 
the Methodist Church, made an address in which 
he referred with much missionary interest to his ex- 
periences in the Oriental lands, from which he had 
just returned. He said that often while in the 
midst of heathenism he tried to think of some met- 
aphor or figure that would illustrate his sensations. 
Sometimes, he said, he felt like a man submerged 
in a dark, filthy river, groping about for pearls and 
compelled, over and over again, to rise to its sur- 
face for a bit of air and light. 

Mrs. Krecker was at this time living in West 
Philadelphia, in a home to which she became par- 
ticularly endeared, and she there found keen pleas- 
ure in hearing reformers and speakers of note as 
her time permitted. The hours spent in listening to 
Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth and Rev. F. B. Mey- 
er, of London, were always held in grateful remem- 
brance. Ever and anon came invitations to meet 
with or address the Woman's Missionary Society 
of other churches than her own, and now and then 
a visit, if but for a day or two, or even an hour or 
two, with some former associate in Japan, renewed 
delightful associations. 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 119 

It was in the spring of 1900 that a missionary 
feast was spread for her in the Ecumenical Confer- 
ence of Foreign Missions, held in New York, in 
May of that year. 

"How inspiring were the crowds that gathered 
at the sessions of the conference and the great 
halls/' she wrote in raptures. "Carnegie Hall nev- 
er had a vacant seat. The great platform was filled, 
the seats on the main floor were filled, all the 
seats in the boxes, balconies and galleries were 
taken, and along the walls on every floor rows of 
patient listeners were standing. On closing night, 
when some of the doorways themselves leading 
into the auditorium of Carnegie Hall were utilized 
as standing room, the guards forbade anymore to 
attempt entrance; still, as late as ten o'clock, the 
little groups of hopeful waiters lingered around 
the lobby. Not a meeting opened but swarms of 
people were crowded at the doors long beforehand, 
sometimes extending quite across the pavement 
outside." 

"A delightful incidental feature of the confer- 
ence was the daily tea in the parlor connected with 
Carnegie Hall. Each afternoon found a few ladies 
of New York the hostesses, pouring tea and passing 
wafers for as many guests as the spacious room 
could contain. Here, many old-time acquaintances 
again greeted one another after years of separation, 
and here also, many admirers of certain missionary 
heroes and heroines found an opportunity to become 
acquainted with their favorite workers. A hearty 
friendliness in addition to an air of polite sociabl- 



120 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ty pervaded the atmosphere, lending it a charac- 
teristically mission-life quality. 

All missionaries are friendly, but medical mis- 
sionaries regard themselves as enjoying a peculiarly 
near fellowship with one another. This was perhaps 
the origin and certainly was the sentiment of the 
luncheon in honor of medical missionaries. As 
the widow of one who was a physician and whose 
missionary work in Japan was largely of that char- 
acter, I became one of the guests. Next to me 
sat Mrs. J. C. Hepburn, wife of the eminent physi- 
cian of that name, one of Japan's veterans and also 
a famous linguist, the compiler of a Japanese-Eng- 
lish dictionary. The two went to the mission field 
sixty years ago as bride and groom. On my other 
side was Mrs. Margaret Bottome, founder of the 
Order of King's Daughters, and then came Dr. J. 
Hudson Taylor, the great missionary and founder 
of the China Inland Mission. Among the many 
guests was Dr. Rife, of Illinois, one of the sons of 
the United Evangelical Church, and now a mission- 
ary to Micronesia. It was an honor, indeed, to my 
mind, to break bread with these famous workers, 
and to talk together of the work of the Lord." 

"Attractive to me indeed were many of the faces 
at the conference, and of those none more beautiful 
than that of Mrs. Geraldine Guiness Taylor, the 
daughter-in-law of Dr. J. Hudson Taylor. With 
many gifts of body and mind, which gave her great 
charms as a speaker, she had united a spirit of the 
sweetest, purest religion, which irradiated all her 
being. 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 121 

"Dr. John G. Paton, dear aged person, seemed 
particularly beloved of all the great crowds. Nev- 
er was his name mentioned during the conference 
that the immense halls did not resound with spirited 
clapping of hands. His abundant hair and long 
beard an* perfectly white and he always uses a 
staff. His manner and speech is child-like in their 
simplicity and show a truly grand spirit of sincere, 
heroic Christianity. 

"Another sweet and beautiful simple personality 
was that of Dr. Hudson Taylor, whose many words 
on devotion and faith in God chiefly emanated from 
his own experience. Like Dr. Paton, he too is some- 
what patriarchal in appearance. Mrs. Alice Gordon 
Gulick— a sister to Miss Anna Gordon, Frances 
Willard's associate, and a member by marriage of 
the celebrated family, Gulick — had a benign moth- 
erly and thoroughly sweet and refined presence that 
greatly endeared her to me. As many of the read- 
ers of Missionary Tidings may know, she is the 
head of the American school for girls in Spain, a 
missionary institution of long and honored stand- 
ing. 

"A lady of great interest and influence is Miss 
Lilivati Singh, president of the Lucknow College, 
India, who appeared in her native flowing, bright 
red costume, and spoke a number of times at dif- 
ferent halls and churches during the conference. 
On one occasion she gave me something of her own 
story, tracing the kindling of a great ambition in 
her to the reading of biographies of noted Ameri- 
can women, particularly that of Mary Lyon. Those 



122 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

examples of Christian womanhood fired her with 
a determination to do great things for her coun- 
trywomen. She lays great stress on the value of 
missionary educational work, for only by increasing 
intelligence have the benighted women of pagan 
countries learned the meaning of much that is re- 
quired of them by Christian law." 

It was at the Ecumenical Council that Mrs. 
Krecker spoke with Arthur T. Pierson, whose mon- 
umental work for missions she much admired, on 
establishing a center for prayer as England had in 
Greenwich; it was there that Dr. Hudson Taylor, 
of China, said to her, "Your face is a benediction/' 
and it was there that a lady of the Episcopal Mis- 
sion of Japan observed that Mrs. Krecker was the 
handsomest and the most graceful of the mission- 
aries that filed one by one across the vast platform of 
Carnegie Hall, when all missionaries of past and 
present were requested to pass in review before the 
audience. Mrs. Krecker bowed prettily as she ap- 
proached the center of the stage in the procession, 
and her face was illuminated as always with her 
smile and her softly resplendent eyes. 

About two years later came the enjoyable trip to 
Toronto, to the Student Volunteers Convention, 
whence she wrote home spiritually of her delights. 

In 1 90 1 a general family dismemberment impelled 
Mrs. Krecker to give up her Philadelphia home and 
go to live with her daughter, Mrs. Ralph Waterman 
Vincent, in New York's attractive suburb, East 
Orange, New Jersey, where the sparkling pres- 
ence of the little grandchild Rosemary became a 



The Frances Willard of Oar Society. 123 

fountain of delight for the grandma, whom Rose- 
mary passionately loved, and whose true pet she 
was. "One time I remember," says Mrs. Vincent, 
"she (Mrs. Krecker) got home late in the evening, 
instead of making a stopover in Philadephia to rest 
over night, because she was so anxious to get back 
to see Rosemary/' Every letter from the grandma 
traveler that reached the little child's home, bore its 
criss-cross marks with some such legend as, "These 
kisses and loves are for my little sweetheart. I 
wonder who my little sweetheart is?" or "I am 
afgraid my little sweetheart is forgetting her grand- 
ma. Here I send kisses for her." 

In East Orange, too, agreeable associations were 
renewed with a number of Japan acquaintances liv- 
ing in or about the same pretty spot, among them 
famous Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Hepburn, the family of 
Dr. and Mrs. I. H. Corell, who had been the first to 
greet Dr. and Mrs. Krecker in Yokohama, and Dr. 
and Mrs. Jas. L. Amerman, together with their 
daughter, Mrs. William Potter Sutphen, whom 
Mrs. Krecker had taught with her own children in 
Tokio. Here, too, the First Presbyterian Church 
became the center of many pleasant associations, 
Mrs. Krecker becoming one of the Mission Band 
leaders and enjoying congenial fellowship, as al- 
ways, winning admiration and esteem. A visitor 
to the church instantly picked her out as one of the 
women leaders. 

The fiscal year of 1902 dawned with big promises 
of accomplishment in behalf of the Woman's Mis- 
sionary Society, and during the first month or two 



124 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

proved energetic enough, with tours in the East 
including a Thanksgiving Missionary Service in 
Germantown, and bringing our missionary tourist 
home just in time for the brilliant and beautiful hol- 
iday season. 

For the new year, at the request of the editor of 
Missionary Tidings, she penned for that paper "To 
all my beloved co-workers — 1903 greetings !" say- 
ing, "In this New Year's message I wish particular- 
ly to emphasize our motto. Let us this year de- 
vote ourselves with enthusiasm to its realization. 
Some of our Branches have pledged themselves to 
special efforts for increasing the membership. Will 
not every member fall into line and make this our 
battle cry for the year? It is not in our power to 
measure what might be done if our members would 
yield themselves wholly to God to be used of him, 
to realize our motto. 

"Let us not be satisfied with what we have done, 
nor with what we are doing, but only with what we 
can do. The most effectual way to accomplish all 
that we can do, is to give Christ the absolute right 
of way in each of our lives. This is not our work, 
but Christ's. His own Spirit must be within us to 
strengthen and to stimulate us, — "without me ye 
can do nothing'' — nothing of real abiding value. 
So may we place ourselves humbly and trustfully 
in his hands to become simply instruments of the 
Holy Spirit. I should like to add a suggestion for 
the monthly auxiliary meeting. All missionaries 
speak with such touching appreciation of the pray- 
ers of those at home. Will not each auxiliary set 



The Frances Willard of Our Society. 125 

aside a short period in every meeting for special 
prayer for our missionaries, — silent pray- 
er, followed by one aloud, or earnest sentence pray- 
ers? It would bring all of us into closer touch 
both with our heavenly Father and with our dear 
missionaries. 

"No meeting should be held without leaving 
sometime for the latest word from China; and in 
conection with it special prayer could be offered. 

"Blessed are the faithful, patient women who 
unselfishly, self-sacrificingly, steadfastly work to 
promote the object, and carry out the plans of our 
Woman's Missionary Society. My heart goes out 
full of loving wishes for all our dear women, that 
each may realize this full happiness our work can 
give. Yours for the service of the Master, 

Elizabeth Krecker. 

When the midnight bell proclaimed the New 
Year which these sweet and loving wishes had 
blessed, there was ushered in the first year since 
1876, that Mrs. Krecker did not enter into active 
work for missions. Yet, when it is remembered 
that all through the still months of 1903 from her 
eager soul, zealous and live as before, albeit impris-^ 
oned in a disabled body, there were wafted prayers 
for the coming of God's kingdom as fervent as any 
she ever uttered from rostrum or pulpit; that the 
development and welfare of her beloved society 
were pondered as solicitously in her solitude as ever 
they had been discussed with her comrades; that 
her spiritual vision, the lovlier counterpart of her 
physical eye, day by day followed each dear friend 



126 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

and co-worker in their loving labors even more 
closely than her footsteps had brought her to the 
scenes of their enterprises, — when all this is re- 
membered, it is verily impossible to conceive as in- 
active the fair , frail little body that lay in her quiet 
little chamber in East Orange, New Jersey, or 
breathed the country fragrance of Verona, New 
York. Nor is it possible to imagine that these holy 
ministrations yielded no appreciative return, subtle 
and indefinable, perhaps, yet sweet and all pervasive, 
as the consciousness was borne in upon the work- 
ers, here, there and elsewhere, that their presi- 
dent, silent and far away, held them and their 
cause in affectionate and prayerful and ceaseless re- 
membrance. Rather be it said that Mrs. Krecker, 
then and to the end, as much as hitherto, was "the 
most representative woman of the Woman's Mis- 
sionary Society." 



CHAPTER VI. 

UP TO THE BEAUTIFUL CITY OE LIGHT. 

"Up to the beautiful City of Light" were the first 
sweet words of a hymn that Dr. and Mrs. Krecker 
loved to join their chidren in singing in the Sunday 
rwilight when gathered on the piazza of their Jap- 
anese home. The doctor had left for the beautiful 
city — left like a victor for his crowning, twenty 
years ago. 

It was now the eve of Mrs. Krecker's going. 

In the March number of the Missionary Tidings 
of the year 1903, appeared a note penned by a pale 
little woman that tingled with longings to be about 
its wonted work. 

"It has been a joy," it ran, "to note the zeal of 
many of our women since the beginning of the fis- 
cal year in missionary institutes, missionary con- 
ferences, together with various other activites. 

"Durng the autumn after the Woman's Board 
Meeting it was my pleasure to spend about six 
weeks in the East Pennsylvania Branch, attending 
missionary institutes, visiting auxiliaries, and giv- 
ing missionary addresses. I was happy in being 
able to organize two new societies, and I trust to 
strengthen the work I visited and the workers I 
met. 

"The next few succeeding weeks were anticipated 

127 



128 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

as a time for quiet rest with my family. These 
were interrupted by a sudden severe attack of illness 
from which I am now slowly recovering. This per- 
iod of enforced inactivity has given me time to 
think of our various workers, East and West, and 
many moments have been occupied in recalling the 
numerous kindnesses received during my different 
journeyings and in praying for all the beloved 
workers. I take particular pleasure in thinking of 
our missionary rallies in which the workers from 
different societies met to exchange views and com- 
pare methods of work. They abound in inspiration 
and helpfulness and will bear much good fruit." 

A harsh cold had revealed an affection of the 
heart of long standing and had made Mrs. Krecker 
captive to the infirmities of the flesh. Adorable 
little woman ! as lovely as an invalid as in radiant 
health. She was the pet of her two nurses during 
the first prostrate weeks in her room, each of whom 
enjoyed matching her soft pink wool shawl against 
the delicately white and rosy cheeks, and charmed 
all with her truly youthful zeal in regaining 
strength. 

By spring the physician had given her permis- 
sion to take a short trip provided she would not be 
decoyed to work. The first weeks of June were 
passed with cousins at the sea shore, the summer in 
Mrs. Vincent's summer cottage "Lilacs," at Vero- 
na, New York, much of her time going to reading, 
ever a favorite pastime. Of these months and their 
rest, a forerunner of a grander repose from all that 
disquiets or w r earies, her letters are records. 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 129 

East Orange, New Jersey, April 28, 1903. 
This is another charming day ! For the past few 
weeks the outlook from my bed-room window has 
been very pretty. The green lawns and blooming 
trees bring constant delight. How often I have 
wished that you could share with me the scene. It 
has been a great help to me to have these beauties 
to look upon from my window during these days 
and weeks that I have not been able to get from the 
home. 

Thank you for the clippings. We enjoy them. 
Marguerite has told you that we have read a num- 
ber of biographies. I greatly enjoy reading about 
noble characters such as Julia Ward Howe, Marga- 
ret Fuller and Horace Mann and Queen Victoria. 
Those are some of the books we have read lately. 
I have also read some of Mabie's essays, as well as 
some of Lubbock's. I have enjoyed all very much. 

From "The Breakers/' Asbury Park. 

Asbury Park, N. Y., May 7, 1903. 
Beulah and I have been reading some of Rus- 
kin's works. Some of Lubbock and Mabie and have 
enjoyed all very much. Of course I read Murray 
and the Bible with much pleasure, and have found 
much comfort in them. 

Asbury Park, N. Y., June 13, 1903. 
I wonder how you are this beautiful morning? 
It is simply a charming day, rather cool, but oh, so 
invigorating. 
9 



130 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

The waves — the breakers are fascinating — since 
the last rain storm the ocean is more lively than 
it had been. 

I was fortunate enough to hear from each one of 
my dear children this morning. It was a great 
treat. 

East Orange, N. J., June 15, 1903. 
The principle reading that I did at Asbury Park 
was the book you left me, "Democracy and Social 
Ethics/' Addams. I enjoyed it very much. I think 
you and I heard her give the substance of the last 
chapter in Philadelphia. 

From "Lilacs" 

Verona, N. Y., June 27, 1903, 
The cottage home looks comfortabe and attractive. 
Two peonies near the front porch are in bloom — 
one white one and one pink one. Mrs. Sleight had 
sent a bouquet of white roses to Marguerite, which 
added to the cozy appearance of the "living hall/*' 
In the evening I called upon Mrs. Case, who picked 
some more choice roses and gave them to me. At 
Rome I had received a beautiful bouquet of roses 
and other posies before leaving. We feel rich in 
pretty flowers. 

To a Dear Friend. 

Verona, N. Y., July 8, 1903. 
We are expecting much benefit from the pure air 
of this part of the country, surrounded by beautiful 
green fields, covered with clover blossoms of pink 




COTTAGE AT VERONA. 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 131 

and white, also plenty of daisies and buttercups de- 
light the eye, while fine shade trees protect the cot- 
tage from the rays of the sun. The cheery songs of 
the birds greet our ears and gladden our hearts 
when we first awake from sleep in the morning. 
How I wish you could share with me the delights 
of this lovely place! It is lovely in its simplicity. 

I am so very thankful to our heavenly Father 
that I have so much of nature to enjoy while I am 
denied the pleasures of the work which has been 
the delight of my heart for so many years. Not to 
be able to respond to the calls from the dear sisters 
in the Western Conferences has made me feel heart 
broken. Just lately I had a letter from the Kansas 
Conference Branch, inviting me to attend their 
Branch meeting. Now if I could have gone to 
Iowa, it would have been comparatively easy to 
go on to Kansas. There are so few auxiliaries in 
that conference, that I just long to help them. But 
here I am without strength of body to undertake 
the journey, — I don't mean to say that I really 
couldn't travel that far, because I could endure the 
travel, but I am not allowed to exercise in public 
meetings. However, I am really gaining strength, 
and I see no reason why I should not gain my 
former vigor — as much as I had a year ago for 
instance. 

How truly encouraging it must have been to you 
to realize such good results from your Branch meet- 
ing. It did me good just to read the report. It 
would be a great pleasure to attend one of your 
Branch meetings again. I trust you will have 



132 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

strength sufficient to continue the work which has 
fallen into your hands again at Carlisle ; but I think 
there is great danger of overtaxing in a work one 
loves so much. It is only natural I suppose for me 
to think of the danger after having had such a 
sudden and unexpected collapse. 

It seems to me, to pray for willing and devoted 
workers seems to be one of the pressing duties at 
hand. May we have the spirit of prayer and also 
the necessary faith. 

I wish you could at this moment enjoy with me 
the sweet fragrance of the new mown grass which 
is wafted to me through the open door by a gentle 
breeze. Marguerite and Rosemary are just return- 
ing from their daily trip after berries. They evi- 
dently had a good time. Berries are delightfully 
plenty. We have been having all the raspberries 
we have needed, and they still continue and the 
blackberries are turning red, by the end of the 
week some will be ripe. 

Had I begun reading "Beside the Bonnie Brier 
Bush" when I wrote you last week? I finished it 
yesterday. When I started it once before I got dis- 
couraged on account of the Drumtochy speech. I 
got along better than I thought I would, and it 
really has a fascination for me now. I enjoyed the 
book very much. The author gives very vivid de- 
scriptions of "Scottish" life, and portrays some ad- 
mirable characters. I suppose you read it. I have 
not finished Flammarion, I put this in between. 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 133 

Verona, New York. 
I am trying to take in as much of the pure air as 
I can by deep breathing, and I am sure it is helping 
me greatly. 

Have you seen the July number of Success? I 
read an interesting article by Mrs. Charlotte Per- 
kins Gilman this afternoon in that magazine. "The 
Home as an Environment for Women," is the title 
of the article. 

I find Flammarion's book very interesting. Of 
course I have always thought of the study of as- 
tronomy as one in which one gets lost in wonder and 
amazement. The immensity of space and the size 
and number of the stars, as well as the motions of 
the stars and planets seems more than my little 
mind can grasp. I admire the perseverance and the 
patience of the men who have developed the sci- 
ence of astronomy. Flammarion manifests great 
imaginative powers. We also enjoy the little poems 
you send; perhaps we sometimes forget to speak 
of them. 

On Her Birthday. 

\ The first day of August was a charming day! 
Just warm enough to be comfortable anywhere, and 
the sky was clear and beautiful. It was a great 
pleasure to hear from each one of the children on 
that day. 

With a shining countenance Rosemary greeted mi 
in the morning while I was yet in bed, and brought 



134 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

me a small handkerchief made by herself. It was 
nicely rolled up in a pink paper. You will imagine 
that it was duly appreciated by the grandma, and 
that it was an illustration of the blessing of giving 
as well as of receiving, for Rosemary was truly 
happy. In the evening when Mrs. Vincent went to 
bed and I kissed her a good-night, she pressed me 
to herself and said, "O you do me so much good ! 
I am so glad for you and very thankful to you for 
reading to me such good things. I cannot tell you 
how much I appreciate it." That seemed the crown- 
ing blessing of a happy day. How could you find 
time to write the "Clever Rhymes"? They are 
sweet indeed, and I thank you. 

To a Dear Friend. 

Verona, N. Y., August 14, 1903. 
As far as I understand my condition I am much 
improved compared with it when I came. But I 
am not well yet. While I knew I had been very ill 
and weak in the winter I did not seem to realize 
how thoroughly my whole system was effected. I 
am truly grateful that I am as comfortable as I am 
and for the strength I have. While I would greatly 
enjoy a visit with you all at Perkasie, and especially 
would it be a delight to help in the work — it would 
be unwise for me to leave here now for such a trip. 
How I wish you could all come here! I am sure 
you for one would enjoy the place. Golden-rod, 
Queen's lace and cat-tails are among the flowers we 
gathered yesterday. Then we have the most beau- 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 135 

tiful clover blossoms all around us. Butter-cups and 
daisies are here yet. 

Back to Bast Orange. 

The autumn days at East Orange, largely whiled 
away in the quiet of the home with reading, writ- 
ing letters and enjoying the cherished missives of 
faithful correspondents, were enlivened with drives 
through the romantic environs of East Orange and 
with calls from East Orange or out of town people. 
A loved co-worker of Philadelphia, who with her 
husband had long endeared themselves to Mrs. 
Krecker by their generous hospitality, their cham- 
pionship of the Woman's Missionary Society, and 
their kindly personal interest, now gladdened many 
hours, not only by her visits, but her never-failing 
messages from time to time of the society, especially 
a telegram of the re-election to the presidency. 

This telegram was sent from the only annual 
meeting of the Woman's Board which Mrs. Kreck- 
er had missed since 1886. Almost to the very mo- 
ment for taking the train thither the invalid pres- 
ident entertained hopes of being present at this 
yearly pilgrimage of the faithful to the Zion of the 
Society, and when she could not attend she sent a 
"cheerful, loving letter of greeting," as one of the 
Board said, which "made us feel for a few moments 
as if she indeed were with us." After the disap- 
pointment of having to remain away, it was inex- 
pressibly gladdening and refreshing and inspiring 
to receive the grateful tidings that the Board had 
loyally elected her to her former offices of president 



136 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

and general organizer, even in view of the long 
months of repose and disability. 

"The ladies have paid me the handsome compli- 
ment of re-electing me," she wrote a Yokohama 
friend, in a cheery, chatty letter of October. 

Bits from other autumn letters are: 

We had a delightful call from Mrs. Gedney yes- 
terday. She brought me a bouquet and a cup of 
jelly. 

I have just finished a very interesting life of 
Hannah More, by Charlotte Mary Yonge, in which 
we are told that when Hannah was about my age, 
she had to give up all her work, writing and at- 
tending to her schools, for about two years, yet she 
lived to be eighty-eight years. That was encour- 
aging. 

October 22, 1903. 
Thank you very much for the books. Just hav- 
ing gotten the life of Elizabeth Fry out of the libra- 
ry, I have not read much in them. Mrs. Fry's life is 
remarkable; I wish you could read it. She had 
honors bestowed upon her by kings and queens, 
lords and ladies, as well as the most wretched human 
beings in her day. 

October 26, 1903. 

I will enclose 's letter of last week. I had 

kept it for Preston to read yesterday. He came in 
time to eat dinner with us at two o'clock. He al- 
ways gets a royal welcome. After dinner we took 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 137 

a drive of about two hours, which we all enjoyed 
unusually well. We thought the views were so 
very fine and the air invigorating. 

To-morrow Mr. Fuessle is expecting to call on 
me. He spent Sunday at Philadelphia. 

In November a long cherished desire to have a 
change of scene was fulfilled in a visit, which she 
made with her physician's approval, to her sister, 
at Mohnsville, Pennsylvania. From the effects of 
this journey her fragile body never wholly revived, 
despite the care given by Dr. and Mrs. B. H. Mil- 
ler and Dr. and Mrs. M. L. Miller, their son and 
daughter-in-law; and, in a little more than a week 
after her arrival, in the morning of November 16, 
1903, Mrs. Krecker, the Mrs. Krecker of whose ex- 
quisite realities her visible self was only a lovely 
shadow, set forth on a lordlier pilgrimage than any 
of the numerous journeys she had made hitherto, 
by land or by sea, East or West. 

Over the marvelous Crystal River she passed to 
the fadeless grandeurs of the City of Light, where 
a long-loved husband awaited her victorious com- 
ing, w T here all the company of the redeemed greeted 
her with the sublime welcomes of celestial rejoicing 
where a mansion was prepared for her in her Fath- 
er's house, and where, among the indescribable glo- 
ries of the spirit-world, which eye hath not seen 
nor ear heard, her magnified life, untrammeled with 
earthly limitations, free in the measureless freedom 
of high heaven, shall flower to a rarer bloom than 



138 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

is known in the fairest gardens of God's beautiful 
earth. 

"To the dear children of a glorified mother/' from 
Bishop Hartzler came the swift, sweet message, one 
of many loving letters, "inscribed/' as Mrs. Kreck- 
er had once phrased it, "by hands that were the 
servants of kind, sympathetic hearts." "To the dear 
children of a glorified mother: With a deep sense 
of personal loss and the pain of a personal bereave- 
ment, I received the startling news that your sweet, 
beautiful mother had been suddenly called to her 
heavenly coronation. Whether I shall offer con- 
dolence to you for the great loss you have suffered, 
or congratulation that the noble mother has finished 
her course without spot or stain on her honored 
name and record, I know not. Perhaps both. 

"I thank God for the beautiful lives of self-sacri- 
ficing service so nobly rendered by your sainted 
father and mother. A priceless heritage both of 
heredity and of memory is yours, and, thank God, 
you are all worthy to be the heirs thereof. 

"God bless and comfort you, sons and daughters ! 
I grieve that I could not be with you when you 
gathered about the sacred dust for the last time, 
before you laid it away in God's acre. In the 
"morning" mother will meet you with the radiant 
face of a glorified one. 

"Yours in the love of a brother, 

"H. B. Hartzler/' 

A dear Chicago friend, who again and again had 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 139 

made her home Mrs. Krecker's home, and for years 
been a dear and valued friend and co-worker, beau- 
tifully wrote: "Our heavenly Father dealt very 
gently with her, no great suffering or lingering pain 
was hers, but he just allowed her to fade from us 
like a beautiful perfected blossom. As the years 
passed on she became more and more lovely, both in 
Christian character and in appearance. As she 
stood before us a year ago I could not take .my eyes 
from her at times. When animated by the Holy 
Spirit, she looked so like one of the beautiful angels 
we picture in our minds, and surely she was near- 
ing perfection. I think God needed her to adorn 
heaven ; she was not for earth ; she only closed those 
eyes that spoke such worlds of sympathy and love 
and God sent angels to accompany her spirit to a 
better world. We shall miss her, but 'With us is 
the Lord our God to help us and to fight our bat- 
tles/ " 

"Her blessed part having been given to heaven," 
"her pure soul unto her captain Christ, under whose 
colors she had fought so long," her body must now 
"be given to the pleasant country's earth." 

The memorial services were held in the First 
Church at Reading, on the morning of Friday, No- 
vember twentieth. The evening previous, sweet 
and simple obsequies had been conducted by the 
Rev. W. Edelman, in the church at Mohnsville, 
whither came many who had followed Mrs. Kreck- 
er's life from the budding time of infancy all 
through its wonderful flower time to the last fading 
moments. There the Rev. A. M. Sampsel and the 



140 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Rev. W. E. Detwiler, two of Mrs. Krecker's tried 
and true friends and staunch supporters, paid lov- 
ing tribute, and the choir sang ; and in the morning 
to Reading came a throng of friends from near and 
far, while many of the church's most eminent sons 
were gathered at the pulpit and chancel made beau- 
tiful with palms and greens, counting it a privilege 
to be present and to share in doing honor to the 
life and works of their sister. 

"It somehow did not seem like a funeral occa- 
sion/' observed, in the Evangelical, the Rev. Dr. W- 
M. Stanford. "It seemed more like a day of glad- 
ness than a day of weeping. Through tears at the 
thought of parting, could be seen a gleam of hope 
at the thought of meeting, just a little farther on. 
It did not seem like going down to a lonely grave, 
but like going up to the fellowship of 
the redeemed. It looked so much like 
an instance of jubilant triumph over the 
last enemy. For several hours before the service 
the people were coming and going, and taking a last 
look at the remains, and yet the very air about us 
seemed filled with heavenly sweetness. It was more 
like the ante-room of glory than a chamber of 
death. It seemed like a day of jubilee. 

'O death, where is thy sting? 
O grave, where is thy victory?' 

"But who is this of whom we speak ? What mean- 
eth those black steeds, and that sable hearse just 
outside the church door? Why cometh this gath- 
ering of ministers and people? See yonder beat*- 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 141 

tiful casket, just in front of the pulpit, with lid up- 
turned, and front side dropped down on its hinges. 
Behold, lying in it the silent, pulseless, breathless, 
speechless form of our now sainted and lamented 
sister Elizabeth Krecker, whose name, by virtue of 
her life of true Christian heroism, self-sacrifice, de- 
votion, faithfulness and energy in the Lord's work, 
had become a household word throughout our en- 
tire church. And just see that "creeping vine of 
smilax," those rosy cheeked carnations and those 
large pink chrysanthemums, all lying against a 
background of thrifty potted-plants, as if they had 
come on purpose at such time as this 

'With their beauty and good cheer, 
To dry away the mourner's tear/ 

and point us forward to a better land, where people 
never die, and where flowers never fade. It was 
like the very picture of repose in a bed of flowers. 
Even the dress for the grave had nothing dark or 
sombre in it. It was more after the fashion of that 
which the "glorified" shall wear, of whom it is 
written that they "have washed their robes and made 
them white in the blood of the Lamb. And that face, 
it was but the innocent picture of a sweet and restful 
sleep. Beautiful in life, it was none the less beau- 
tiful in death. It looked as if some sweet angel had 
just passed by and dropped a halo of ineffable glory 
upon it. Were it left to us to read that silent, but 
most expressive face, we would speak of it as just 
then coming into full view of the eternal city, with 
a burst of soul like the following on her hallowed 
lips: 



142 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

'Bathed in unfallen sunlight, 

Itself an unborn gem, 

Fair gleams the glorious city, 

The new Jerusalem! 

City fairest, splendor rarest, 

Let me gaze on thee. 

Calm in her queenly glory, 

She sits all joy and light: 

Pure in her bridal beauty, 

Her raiment festal white, 

Home of gladness, free from sadness, 

Let me dwell in thee.' 

The service was conducted under the direction 
of the Rev. A .M. Sampsel, a former pastor of Mrs. 
Krecker, and opened with the reading of the twen- 
ty-third Psalm by Dr. Stanford, who had not for- 
gotten that on this matchless poem was based a 
sermon, delivered twenty years ago in Japan in Dr. 
Krecker's memory. "Thy way, not mine, O Lord," 
a favorite hymn of Mrs. Krecker's, was announced 
by the Rev. Edward Haines Kistler, pastor of the 
church, and sung by the congregation, after which 
the Rev. C. S. Haman offered prayer. The Rev* 
S. S. Chubb announced "Lead kindly Light," an- 
other hymn Mrs. Krecker loved, and then followed 
the sermon by Rev. Jacob Hartzler, of York. 

Of these eminent sons of the church gathered 
in pulpit and chancel, than Dr. Hartzler, Superin- 
tendent of the Japan Mission when Dr. and Mrs. 
Krecker were in Japan, none was more fitted to 
"stand as God's comforter, with silvered head point- 
ing to the glories of the heavenly city." "Gone 
into Heaven" was the text. 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 143 

"Primarily referring to Jesus Christ," he began, 
"these words are no less applicable to his departed 
saints. They call attention to the beautiful terminal 
for time's travelers and so arouse interest in that 
wonderland of God. When I was under appoint- 
ment as missionary to Japan, I could not learn 
enough about that land and its people ; I was won- 
drously interested in them. I suspect that those 
who love not to think of heaven, may question 
whether they are going there. 

"To this land the Bible is the lighthouse, not re- 
vealing much or clearly of the glories there, but 
showing surely and safely the channel into the har- 
bor. This word shows it to be a land of most glo- 
rious rest, the consummation of the rest given in 
Christ here ; a rest excluding toil, pain and sorrow. 

'Just beyond the shores of time, 
The better years begin.' 

"A land of most ennobling activity and employ- 
ment. Rest is consistent with the highest activity, 
and heaven is the most active place in the universe. 
There are the angels, constantly the ministering 
spirits of those who shall be heirs of salvation. 
There are the redeemed, of whom it is written 'they 
serve him day and night in his temple/ that is 
constantly. What they do, we don't know. But 
Moses and Elijah at least once came down here f o 
minister a labor of love. Some think that life's work 
is so fragmentary, hardly prepared for, before end- 
ed. It is not ended for the Christian, for the life 
beyond is the continuation of the labor for him 



144 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

here. Faithful to his trusts here means more trusts 
there committed to us. 

"A Japanese, at 84, deplored that he had not 
known Christ before. 'But/ said he, 'I think he'll 
have something for me to do over there.' A labor 
in which we never grow weary, but which itself 
will be a feast for the soul. 

"A land of increased and ever increasing Light 
and Knowledge. How hard it is to acquire knowl- 
edge here, and yet how much we all want to know. 
Every child born may be said to be an interrogation 
point. Thus the Christian looks ahead gladly to 
that larger knowledge, as an old saint once said: 
'How much I shall know half an hour hence !' Then 
we shall know as we are known ; then we shall de- 
light in our larger knowledge of God; of his ways 
with man. Many of the perplexing problems I have 
pushed aside until I shall know them hereafter." 

Dr. Hartzler closed with fond and touching rem- 
iniscences of both Dr. and Mrs. Krecker. "Togeth- 
er they began to serve their God; together they 
labored in his service; together they rejoice in his 
home." 

Miss Carrie Neitz, representing the Woman's 
Board of Missions, then read this sketch of Mrs. 
Krecker's life : 

"The altogether lovely character and lovely per- 
sonality of Mrs. Elizabeth Krecker united external 
grace and beauty with the beauty and grace of the 
soul. 

"Sweetness and gentleness of disposition, cor- 
diality, ease and winsomeness of manner, tact, sur- 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 145 

passing judgment and liberality of mind were key- 
notes to the charming and well rounded character 
which endeared her to every one in the large world 
of her friends and acquaintances. 

"Outside the world of her friends and acquaint- 
ances entire strangers many times and often, evinced 
their admiration for her. At a dinner given for a 
number of missionaries at the Ecumenical Confer- 
ence of Missions, where Mrs. Krecker was a guest, 
the famous missionary Hudson Taylor, a fellow 
guest, accosted her, saying, "I want to know you. 
Your face is a benediction to me/ 

"The life, which in middle age blossomed out to 
so wide a field of usefulness and influence, began 
modestly on one of the large and delightful farms 
of Pennsylvania. Elizabeth Oberholser, as Mrs. 
Krecker was by her maiden name, was educated dt 
Union Seminary, now consolidated with Albright 
College. In 1867 she married Dr. Frederick Kreck- 
er, U. S. N., who later retired from the navy and 
became a medical missionary to Japan. Mrs. Kreck- 
er was her husband's sympathetic helpmeet from 
the first in his Japanese labors; in love with every 
phase of the beautiful work, and dearly beloved of 
all the Japanese with whom she associated. A 
Methodist Episcopal bishop, on a world-tour of mis- 
sion stations, while in Japan termed her the finest 
woman missionary he had ever met. Two years 
after the death of her husband, in 1883, at his post 
in Japan, Mrs. Krecker returned to America, where 
her public career began with lectures on Japan and 
on missionary work in Japan. A scholar of excep- 
10 



146 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. . 

tional cultivation, in congratulating her on one of 
these addresses, said that Mrs. Krecker knew how 
to touch on many features of Japanese life which 
many lecturers omit as insignificant, but which are 
of especial interest to the audience. 

"Her public work soon became intimately iden- 
tified with the Woman's Missionary Society, of 
which she was elected organizer in 1888, and pres- 
ident in 1890, continuing both offices until her 
death. They entailed constant travel throughout 
the church limits, into all the conferences except 
the Oregon, which had made' arrangements for her 
several times, only to fall through. 

"Of the life in her home which was so dear to 
her that it was always relinquished with a pang 
for one of her trips, none knew but to praise it. 'An 
ideal mother,' 'my ideal woman/ or 'my ideal of a 
housekeeper/ were fond compliments repeated again 
and again by her admiring friends. 

"When, last winter, the sudden break came in a 
constitution which seemed to promise many happy 
years, she clung passionately to her life and to her 
work. In one of her last letters she referred to 
the fact that Miss Hannah More, at the age of 6f, 
was obliged to give up her phianthropics for two 
years on account of her health, and then revived 
and lived to be over eighty years of age. This Mrs. 
Krecker thought seemed encouraging. 

"After journeying thousands and thousands of 
miles during her lifetime, she fell asleep within a 
dozen miles of the old farm where her beautiful 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 147 

face first saw the world. She passed away on the 
morning of Nov. 16, 1903." 

After the singing of the hymn, "Jerusalem the 
Golden," which was announced by the Rev. J. G. 
Sands, Dr. J. D. Woodring, President of Albright 
College, offered the closing prayer. 

A little cortege of near friends and relatives now 
accompanied the "tenantless clay" to Philadelphia, 
where, in the beautiful Ivy Hill Cemetery, at Ger- 
mantown, it was given its last resting place, and 
above the grassy mound were laid the handsome 
wreathes of flowers sent by the Woman's Mission- 
ary Society and others. At this sacred spot there 
now rises a simple little stone inscribed with the 
same words that are engraved upon a tombstone in 
far-away Japan: "Precious in the sight of the Lord 
is the death of his saints." 

But more abiding than even the solid granite are 
the eternal influences of a life that is consecrated, 
loving, wise, powerful; these lovely influences are 
the monuments that memory and impressions, some- 
times as unconscious and subtle as they are ever- 
lasting and lovely, have reared for Dr. and Mrs. 
Krecker. 



"NACHRUF." 

BY BISHOP H. B. HARTZLER. 



"At last, thy life well lived, thy work well done, 
Thy shining course of steadfast duty run 
Thy time of rest has come at set of sun. 



148 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

II. 

Now in "thy lot" in glory dost thou stand, 

Yet livest on, in this terrestrial land, 

In other lives touched by thy gracious hand. 

III. 
Thy life was seed for harvests yet to be, 
And its full, ripened fruitage none may see 
Till breaks the day-dawn of Eternity! 

IV. 

We joy with thee that thy life's goal is won, 

Beyond the glory of the setting sun, 

Where Jesus waited with his sweet "Well done I" 



TO THE MEMORY OF DR. KRECKER. 

BY THE REV. A. W. ORWIG. 

Loved friend, beyond the mighty deep, 
In Jesus thou hast fallen asleep; 
Thy cares have now forever ceased, 
And from thy toils thou art released. 

Yes, faithful toiler o'er the sea, 

With Jesus thou hast gone to be; 

No more the armor thou shalt bear, 

The fadeless crown thou now dost wear. 

And in that crown are stars we know, 
With brightest luster all aglow; 
For many souls thy faithful hand 
Has rescued in that heathen land. 

And now, O God, thy grace impart 
Sustain and heal each wounded heart, 
And in the hollow of thy hand 
O keep that broken, weeping band! 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 149 

And may our prayers and gifts of love 
With richest blessings from above 
Be giv'n, dear Saviour, to proclaim 
O'er all the earth thy glorious name! 
June 4, 1883. 



A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE BY BISHOP H. B, 
HARTZLER. 



At Omaha, Nebraska, I received belated news 
of the homegoing of Sister Elizabeth Krecker. The 
news came to me on the day before the tenantless 
earthly tabernacle was to be laid away to await 
the summons of the resurrection trumpet. As I 
read the brief, saddening message, and the tenderest 
chords of friendship thrilled to the touch of pain, 
there rose before me a vision of the sweet, sunny 
face and the beautiful, consecrated, useful life of 
the departed sister and friend. 

I saw her, with her noble, chivalrous husband, 
Dr. Frederick Krecker, and her little flock of happy 
children, taking her departure from Cleveand, Ohio, 
after a farewell meeting, to begin a missionary life 
in Tokio, Japan. I recalled the unremitting, suc- 
cessful labors of the missionaries in laying the 
foundations of that first heathen mission of the 
Evangelical Association. Imagination pictured the 
heart-breaking experience of the wife and mother 
when the heroic husband and father died on the 
field, a martyr to duty, and his body was laid away 
in a Japanese grave. 

I thought of the brave, bleeding heart of the 
widow girded with supernatural strength to take 



150 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

up again the work of the mission and the care of 
her fatherless children, approved of God and men 
as a model missionary and a model mother. Then 
again I saw her with her four noble children, re- 
turning to the home-land to fight life's hard battle 
single-handed and serve her day and generation to 
the end. I remember how she gave herself to the 
work of the Woman's Missionary Society, whose 
beloved and honored President she became, and in 
whose service she finished her course, after years 
of blessed services in organizing the work and 
mothering it with a warmth of love and devotion 
worthy of the noble heart that gave it. 

I remember also how during those years her 
growing sons and daughters lived in the light and 
grew to beautiful manhood and womanhood in the 
genial warmth of her loving heart, trained, edu- 
cated, ennobled under her gentle tutelage and un- 
remitting care — worthy sons and daughters of glo- 
ry-crowned "parents in the skies." I could not for- 
get how the faithful organizer gave herself to the 
work of the Woman's Missionary Society, travel- 
ing near and far over the territory of the church, 
in weakness and weariness often, never sparing her- 
sef until at last the overburdened, patient heart 
gave way, and the weary "wheels of life stood 
still" at the portals of the house of many mansions. 
It touched my heart to read that the sudden sum- 
mons to the heavenly home came to dear Sister 
Krecker when she was away from home and away 
from the devoted children she so tenderly loved, and 
who so affectionately cherished the sweet mother 



Up to the Beautiful City of Light. 151 

God had given them. Often will the children, as 
they think of her, sigh 

"For the touch of a vanished hand, 

And the sound of a voice that is still/ 9 

The memory of Sister Elizabeth Krecker will be 
a cherished possession of the United Evangelical 
Church, and especially of the Woman's Missionary 
Society, and her work will bear fruit of blessing 
in many a heart and home, school and church, for 
years to come. "She is not dead, but sleepeth." 



CHAPTER VII 



"tho being dead yet speaketh." 



Thoughts of strength and beauty that live and 
will live winnowed from Mrs. Krecker's writings. 

The more we open our hearts for the indwelling 
of the Holy Spirit, the more delightful God's service 
becomes. 

The thought of our great responsibilities and no- 
ble possibilities is overwhelming. 

Let us hasten the coming of our glorious King 
and his Kingdom on earth by making him the su- 
preme sovereign of our lives and work. 

Let us study more faithfully the manner and 
means Christ would have us use in hastening the 
kingdom. 

If our Woman's Missionary Society is to do any 
great work it must be done largely by prayer- 
Earnest prayers, coupled with faith and effort, 
will do wonders. Let us never forget our depend- 
ence upon God. Let us have more prayer in con- 
nection with our work. Christ says, "All power is 

152 



"T ho Being Dead Yet Speaketh." 153 

given unto me in heaven and earth." If we can 
believe "that there is power in Christ for the pro- 
duction of holiness — I mean holiness of life and 
character; a power for the production of conse- 
cration of the most intense and vigorous kind ; if we 
can believe that in Christ there is all power in 
heaven and earth, to make us live here a heavenly 
life, living among men as those who are inspired 
by God and filled with the divine presence, we shall 
do for our age something that is well worth doing." 
O what possibilities to those whose life is yielded to 
him in waiting dependence and full obedience to be 
made spiritual." Teach us blessed Lord how thus 
to yield ourselves that we may live "spiritual lives, 
full of humility, and love, and self-sacrifice." When 
once Christ is all and in all with his disciples, and 
their whole "being pervaded, influenced, sanctified 
by the Holy Spirit," then there will be no fretting 
about having so little of gifts to give, neither an 
unwillingness to give much if we possess much. In 
either case giving will be a joy, and the Lord's 
treasury will be filled. 

"The fervent prayer of the righteous availeth 
much." I feel like asking every sister to pray as she 
never prayed before. 

I should like to make these practical suggestions. 
Pray for our organization — for every officer and 
every member of the convention. Pray that all may 
make an unconditional surrender to God, that he 
may be filled with a knowledge of his will in all 
wisdom and spiritual understanding. Pray that 



154 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

he may direct us in all our undertakings for him. 
Pray that he may teach us just what he would 
have us do. 

Ask God for a missionary spirit, a self-denying 
spirit. Pray for the faith and courage shown by 
our sisters of the Methodist Episcopal Church when 
they sent out their first missionary. "Soon after the 
organization of the Methodist Woman's Foreign 
Missionary Society was formed, Miss Isabella Tho- 
hurn was presented as a candidate for work. Her 
brother was already in the field, and so strong were 
her convictions of duty that she had resolved, if 
not sent by this body to go as a representative of a 
sister society. Not twenty ladies were present at 
the meeting, and they had less than three hundred 
dollars in the treasury — no more than enough for an 
outfit. At last Mrs. E. F. Porter, with thrilling 
earnestness, spoke of the needs of the heathen, and 
of the peculiar fitness of the one who had offered 
to go. Shall we lose her she asked, 'because we 
have not the needed money in our hands?' No, 
rather let us walk the streets of Boston in our cal- 
ico robes, and save the expense of more costly ap- 
parel. Mrs. President, I move the appointment of 
Miss Thoburn as our missionary to India. Every 
heart responded, Amen! And with united voices 
they said, 'We will send her/ " 

We are not told whether these sisters were neces- 
sitated to wear calico dresses, but we do know that 
they did not get into debt, the needed money was al- 
ways supplied, not only for the one missionary, but 



"Tho Being Dead Yet Speaketh." 155 

the numbers were steadily increased until they can 
count their missionaries by the hundred. While I 
would plead with you for a manifestation of the 
same spirit that these sisters had, I remember that 
we cannot do just the same as they did because they 
sent their first candidate, while we have allowed a 
number of persons to take the alternate — of going, 
under another society, because we did not send 
them. Three years ago Miss Eldering would gladly 
have gone anywhere that we would have sent her; 
but we didn't have the "needed money in our 
hands." Last year Bro. Rife offered to go. Since, 
as you have all read, he and his bride went under 
the American Board. How long shall we continue 
to let those whom God raises up from amongst us 
for foreign work, get their support from other so- 
cieties? Dear sisters, I feel that God is calling 
loudly to us through these examples. What are we 
going to do about it? Are we guiltless in God's 
sight? Let us keep in close communion with him 
that we may know his will concerning us, and that 
we may be willing to make every sacrifice necessary 
to do that will. It is his will I desire to have done 
by cur society, nothing else. 

Let this be a year of believing prayer. Let us 
set apart time and give ourselves to this part of 
our intercessory work. It will lead into the fellow- 
ship of that compassionate heart of his that led to 
call for our prayers. It will elevate us to the insight 
of our regal position, as those prayers will count 
for something with the great God in the advance- 



156 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

inent of his kingdom. It will make us feel how 
really we are God's fellow-workers on earth to 
whom a share in his work has in downright earnest 
been entrusted. It will make us partakers in the 
soul travail, but also in the soul satisfaction, as we 
know how, in answer to our prayer, blessings have 
been given that otherwise would not have come." 

Who can say what power a church could develop 
and exercise, if it gave itself to the work of prayer 
day and night for the coming of the kingdom, for 
God's power on his servants and his word, for the 
glorifying of in the salvation of souls ? Most churches 
think their members are gathered into one, simply 
to take care of and build up each other. They 
know not that God rules the world by the prayers 
of his saints; that prayer is the power by which 
Satan is conquered; that by prayer the church on 
earth has the disposal of the powers of the heavenly 
world. They do not remember that Jesus has, by 
his promise, consecrated every assembly in his name 
to be a gate of heaven, where his presence is to be 
felt, and his power experienced in the Father ful- 
filling their desires. 

Let it be a year of definite prayer. Jesus asked 
the blind man, "What wilt thou that I should do 
unto thee?" "To all the Lord says: And what is 

it now you really want and expect me to do? 

Definite prayer teaches us to know our needs better. 
]t demands time, and thought, and self-scrutiny to 
find out what really is our greatest need. It search- 
es us and puts us to the test as to whether our de- 
sires are honest and real, such as we are ready to 



"Tho Being Dead Yet Speaketh" 157 

persevere in. It leads us to judge whether our de- 
sires are according to God's Word, and whether 
we really believe that we shall receive the things we 
ask. It helps us to wait for the special answer, and 
to mark it when it comes. " 

"Our Indebtedness to God." How impossible 
it is to give an account of what we feel to be our in- 
debtedness, to sum it up in any way even in our own 
minds ! But even if we could do that, we do not 
know all that we owe? A little child feels that his 
mother cares for him and understands that his 
father provides for him, but how utterly incapable 
is that little child of really comprehending the mag- 
nitude of the work of each for him, — how far back 
began his mother's solicitude and pain for him, how 
far into the future reach his father's plans for his 
advancement, how he is their abiding thought, how 
with a love that is infiintely deeper and immeasur- 
ably more constant than any attachment he may 
have for his toys or pets or for them, how, with a 
love that his little being does not know, they do 
for him ! In the same way God's thoughts are 
above our thoughts and his ways are higher than 
our ways. We cannot measure up to them. Yet the 
very thought of our debt being more than we can 
possibly compute, is a stimulus to expressing to 
the full of our beings all the gratitude that we can 
feel. We will do what we can. We will offer up 
our thanks. We will sing our praises. But words ! 
Words are nothing. Alone they signify nothing. 
It is with the grand motives of our lives that we 



158 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

give thanks or show ingratitude to God; it is with 
our aims and endeavors, our hands and our hearts 
that we can sing praises to him. 

It is easy for us to understand that mission work 
brings advantages to those for whom we work. 
But it is equally true that the work brings great 
advantages to those who do it. Whether you wish 
to be educated in respect to the history, the biog- 
raphy, the geography or the philanthropy of the 
world, you must be informed on the facts of mis- 
sions. The greatest part of the world is unevan- 
gelized, so that most geography deals with lands 
that are properly mission fields. For the same rea- 
son much of the history of the world gives an ac- 
count of the heathen peoples with whom missions 
are concerned; while biographical literature would 
lose some of its noblest subjects, were it to be 
robbed of the memoirs of our hero missionaries, 
such as Carey, Judson, Livingstone, and Paton. 
Again, in the field of philanthropy we find that 
missions play an important part. No other form 
of philanthropy has such a world-wide character as 
missions, and none has a loftier interest. 

Spiritual revivals and revivals of missionary en- 
thusiasm have already been handmaids, the one to 
the other. The truth of this, I think, every one here 
and every member of our Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety can prove with illustrations from her own 
enlargement of mind, and heart, and soul, and the 
enrichment of her spiritual life. Has it not lifted 



"Tho Being Dead Yet Speaketh" 159 

us out of our lower selves, giving us a broader out- 
look over God's world, a keener comprehension of 
his purposes and a near, sweeter communion with 
him? 

As we ponder over these reflex influences of mis- 
sionary work, are we not compelled, are we not wil- 
lingly impelled, to regard a participation in it as an 
individual blessing and a holy pleasure to the work- 
er? If they were appreciated by all, not a woman 
in the church but would, quite irrespective of any 
feeling for the heathen world or a sense of love or 
obligation to God, rejoice at the opportunity of 
allying herself with the Woman's Missionary Soci- 
ety. 

Let us take the highest examples we know of as 
our models, and each of us in her individual, soli- 
tary, perhaps, obscure niche in life, faithfully re- 
produce, albeit in miniature, these great and "elect" 
ladies who have been our inspirations; Fidelia 
Fiske, the wives of Judson, Geraldine Guinness 
Tavlor, and countless others. It is not creeds or 
constitutions or organizations in themselves that 
spread our Lord's precious gospel, but individual 
lives which are read as living epistles by all men. 
Let us learn more and more to love and serve, to 
carry comfort and consolation to homes where sor- 
row has come; to rejoice with those who rejoice 
and weep with those who weep. Let us ever seek 
the beautiful spirit of love that seeketh not her own, 
that will give and ask nothing because the heart is 
possessed of God." Let it be said of us what Low- 



160 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ell said of his wife, that we are great in our "love 
for God and humanity." Let the fundamental will, 
the propelling, motive force of all be love. "Love 
that serves, love that sacrifices itself, love that so 
sacrifices itself that it lays down life in order that 
the recipient of it may enter into life." 

A love for our God breeds a love for all man- 
kind. A consecrated life waits on God, serves him, 
seeks him, loves those whom he loves and seeks 
to bless them as he blesses them. It is this mind in 
men that impels them to-day to make the world 
blossom with lovely agencies of benevolence, of re- 
finement, progress, comfort, education — above all, 
of missions. For, everything done for the home- 
land is more natural in the enlightened heart and 
soul than is anything however trivial done for suf- 
ferers, however forlorn, in a country not our own, 
who are uninterested in us and who, when our 
messengers come to them frequently regard them 
as disturbers of their peace. Hence missionary 
work is prompted by a more enlightened type, a 
broader and higher type of love than is any other 
form of benevolence. It is a love that is prompted 
by communion with God. The increase of grace and 
holiness in believers, their growing devotion to 
God's work, waits to come to us from God through 
Christ. And it will come in proportion as it is 
"looked for and desired, asked." Spiritual work 
involves the expenditure of spiritual power, and the 
soul can be replenished only by dwelling in the se- 
cret place of the Most High. Nothing but waiting 
at the throne, — keeping the heart under the eyes 



"Tho Being Dead Yet Speaketh." 161 

of the Lamb, to be again and again penetrated by 
his Spirit — will put the soul into the condition in 
which it is a meet instrument to impart the light 
and power of God to others. 

Our spirit, our degree of enthusiasm, of zeal, of 
prayerfulness, of willingness, become infused into 
our work, and are markedly transferred to others. 
The personal element is increditable in any work. 
The sight of a woman whose face gleams with en- 
thusiasm for her work, whose words reflect the 
permeating zeal of her thoughts, whose hearing, 
movements, presence itself, show each and all of 
them joyful, satisfying, living association with the 
cause she labors for will be an example that will be 
remembered and loved and imitated voluntarily or 
unconsciously when every other conceivable kind 
of argument for missions would be weak or futile. 

We need to believe that the work is God's work 
and that the person who interests herself in it will 
be blessed and strengthened of God. 

Let us ever bear in mind the things which we in 
general want to teach people. And then let us teach 
them. Teach our people the purpose of Christ 
Jesus our Lord in his great, world-wide plan of 
salvation. Teach them proportionate, systematic 
and cheerful giving unto the Lord. Teach them the 
needs of the world, the claims of the heathen. Teach 
them their personal responsibilities in the evangel- 
ization of the world; teach them to do personal 
ii 



162 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

work; teach them to make personal sacrifices for 
Jesus' sake, for the purpose of extending his king- 
dom. Teach them to make an unconditional sur- 
render to God, to be wholly the Lord's and to live 
for him who died for them. Teach them the great 
need of our church. 

While we are avowedly laboring for God, if we 
do not continually depend upon him for strength 
and wisdom, we cannot work acceptably in his sight, 
and he is unable to give us the blessings he desires 
to give, because we are unfit to receive them. There- 
fore we cannot too strongly emphasize prayer in our 
work, both in public and private. There are so many 
things to pray for— for courage, for patience, and 
for faith; for our essays and reports, for our com- 
mittee work, for our contributions, and all our meet- 
ings, private and public. We should make a study 
of prayer, that we may fulfill the conditions for re- 
ceiving answers to our prayers. "The fervent, ef- 
fectual prayer availeth much;" but "If I re- 
gard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my 
prayer ;" but again, "If ye abide in me and my words 
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall 
be done unto you." 

United prayer has special power with God. "Again 
I say unto you if two of you shall agree on earth 
touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done 
unto them of my Father which is in heaven." Bands 
of missionaries on various mission fields have form- 
ed unions for daily prayer in behalf of the work, and 
I believe we, as a society, can do nothing better for 
the cause of missions than to encourage our mem- 



«> 



Tho Being Dead Yet Speaketh" 163 

bers, each and every one, to join in this definite 
daily prayer Christ told his disciples to pray, "The 
Lord of the harvest that he will send forth more 
laborers into his harvest." 

We must not be afraid to ask the Lord for large 
gifts. Why be satisfied with small blessings when 
we might have great ones? Others are receiving 
"good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, 
and running over." Shall we not claim it also? 

The reflex influence of foreign missions upon a 
church are so valuable that it seems as if on that 
account alone, if for nothing else it is our duty to 
urge the work. 

It is the avowed object of our society not only 
to labor for our own immediate interests, but to 
endeavor to draw forth and develop all the mis- 
sionary forces of the church. 

Some of the most potent influences do not give 
visible, tangible results immediately. The Bible 
urges us to pray and asserts that the prayer of the 
righteous avails much, but certain conditions must 
be fulfilled, often making the results gradual. In 
the second place, it is contrary to all reason to pray 
for a thing for which we put forth no practical ef- 
fort ,and prayer of this kind will not be influential 
before God, nor receive a blessing. In the third 
place, let me remind you that the withholding what 
we desire sometimes proves to be of the greatest 



164 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

value. It teaches us lessons concerning the manner 
of praying and the manner of working and rouses 
our energies to new undertakings. In the fourth 
place, as Dr. Trumbull has observed, and as all true, 
earnest people must realize, "There is a blessing In 
the very longings of prayer." 

Let us remember that we are but stewards of God, 
that all that we call our own belongs to him, and 
that we are accountable to him for the way in which 
we manage our stewardship. 

It is wonderful how he teaches us in regard to 
our temporal affairs if we speak with him in regard 
to our desires and tastes. It seems to me that we 
ought to be anxious to arrange our affairs so that 
Jesus may be pleased with us and our surroundings. 
And let us remember that he has the same interest 
and knowledge as if he were here in person. 

Lord, enable me to honor thee by good deeds, 
right words, a holy life and a Christ-like character. 

Teach me to yield myself up to thee so fully that 
thou wilt not only guide and support me but act 
by me, think through me, and live in me. 

Instead of looking at our disadvantages let us 
look at our possibilities. Our possibilities are ; n 
God. If we will yield to him and unite our hearts 
in prevailing prayer, he can and will make us 
mightier instruments. 



"Tho Being Dead Yet Speaketh" 165 

My heart goes out in longing desire for a more 
fully consecrated sisterhood, and to see our auxil- 
iaries become centers of spiritual power for a con- 
secration that exclaims, "I delight to do thy will, 
OGod." 

Let us not cease to pray for the spirit of mis- 
sions, the Christ spirit, the Holy Spirit to fill the 
hearts of our people and the people of God every- 
where. 



Appendix 



MRS. KRECKER'S LAST LETTERS TO THE 
. WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. 



My Dear Mrs. Renter: 

I send the president's address to you as secretary 
of the Board. I hope you will be able to read it. I 
had to make so many corrections when it came from 
the typewriter. It was written in the hope of being 
present to read it myself ; but Dr. Mitchell, who was 
my attending physician, advises strongly against it. 
He told me I have gained much in the past few 
months, but I would run too great a risk in attend- 
ing so important a convention as our Board Meet- 
ing, with the idea of taking an active part. After 
he had gone I thought it all over, and finally came 
to the conclusion that after all he might let me go 
if I would promise not to attend many meetings, 
but my plans did not materialize. Somehow I could 
not give up the idea of getting to the meeting until 
the time for going is here and I am not among the 
number that are going. 

May you have a most successful meeting. 

There are a few more things I should like to men- 
tion in my address, but I don't know whether I can 

put them together. Dr. Mitchell has said he thinks 

166 



Appendix. 167 

the work in connection with the thought of going 
has affected me somewhat unfavorably. 

The enclosed note from Bro. Fouke will explain 
itself. _; I believe you have heretofore written the 
articles. Will you kindly write one again? 
Give my love to each one of the delegates. 
Yours sincerely, 

Elizabeth Krecker. 
East Orange, N. J., Sept. 30, 1903. 

My Dear Mrs. Remer: 

Last evening I forgot to enclose Mr. Fouke's let- 
ter, I will send it to-day. I imagine you are in 
executive session at this time. How gladly I would 
be with you ; and I feel strong enough to meet with 
you, if I only were in Canton instead of East Or- 
ange. I do not feel as if I could be of much help to 
you, but I would be glad to learn more of the par- 
ticulars about the work. It may seem strange, but 
for most of the time during my invalidism I have 
not been able to enter deeply into the work. The 
fact that I feel that I would enjoy helping to plan 
for the work is one sign of returning strength ; at 
least I take it as such. I realize that you have im- 
portant work before you at this meeting. May 
great wisdom and faith be given you in all your de- 
liberations. I will spend much time in praying for 
you during the session. With much love to all the 
dear workers. Yours, 

Elizabeth Krecker. 
October 1st, 1903. 



i68 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

THE WOMAN'S MISSIONARY SOCIETY AT 
CAMP-MEETINGS. 



The camp-meeting offers a golden opportunity 
for spreading our work. It is an opportunity for 
obtaining the greatest possible results for the time 
and energy spent. Many different congregations, 
people young and old, town and country, are brought 
together for a week or more to devote their time 
especially to religious and spiritual subjects. No 
other such opportunity is given the entire year. 
How can we make the best possible use of this un- 
exampled opportunity? 

General Work. 

Women are accused of not being systematic In 
their work and so fail to accomplish much they 
might do. Let us then try to be systematic in our 
undertakings for the Woman's Missionary Society 
in order to do the utmost for our work. 

The most effective work could be done if the Ex- 
ecutive committee of the Conference Branches or 
the Branch conventions would appoint for each 
camp-meeting one or two persons to take the lead- 
ership of this work and who would make the prep- 
aration required before going to camp-meeting. 
These persons should send for the necessary liter- 
ature, and call a meeting as early as possible after 
reaching camp-meeting to discuss plans and appoint 
committees. The committees should include one 
on missionary literature, one on children's work, 



Appendix. 169 

one to make arrangements for a Woman's Mission- 
ary Society Day, and one to solicit new members. 

As the K. L. C. E. have a missionary department, 
endeavor to secure their co-operation wherever pos- 
sible. 

Do not confine yourselves to work through com- 
mittees, but let each one work individually. Speak 
of the object of the Woman's Missionary Society 
to those who are not members. Explain our 
aims and methods ; the work accomplished 
by Women's Missionary Societies of other de- 
nominations; the great need of missionary 
work at home and abroad. Drop a seed for the 
spread of the work wherever an occasion offers it- 
self. Select items of interest to show to those dis- 
interested. Get some facts and incidents fixed in 
your mind so that you can talk about them. 

Missionary Literature. 

On the second page of the cover of Missionary 
Tidings will be found a full list of leaflets kept by 
our Bureau of Literature. Some are free, others 
are very inexpensive. Money invested in this way 
will bring in heavy rates of interest. In sending for 
the literature, mention to Mrs. Dubs for what it is 
intended and she will make the most useful selec- 
tions. Before going to camp-meeting each member 
should collect all the available missionary literature 
for free distribution, leaflets, magazines, etc., that 
have been used in the monthly meetings. These 
should always be preserved during the year for 



170 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

such purposes. The printed page can often present 
truth so much better than we can express it, that 
literature will be found invaluable. 

Send to the Evangelical Publishing Company for 
sample copies of the Missionary Evangelical, to be 
distributed among the children. There should be 
samples of our World's Penny Helpers, Banks of 
Blessing, Cradle Roll Certificates. There should al- 
so be a liberal supply of our constitutions 
— including those of the Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety, Young People's, and Mission Bands. And 
above all there should be vigorous canvassing for 
the Missionary Tidings. Last year Mrs. J. H. 
Shirey did a good work by having missionary leaf- 
lets distributed on Woman's Missionary Society Day. 
The eagerness with which they were received by 
young and old was very encouraging. 

Missionary Conferences. 

Missionary conferences such as have been held by 
our Illinois sisters at the Oakdale Park camp-meet- 
ings cannot fail to be of great benefit. They spend 
an hour in the interests of missions every day, be- 
ginning at 1 : 30. These meetings have proved a 
great blessing to the Illinois Branch. The sisters 
saw an opportunity to work for the Lord through 
the Woman's Missionary Society. They seized 
the opportunity and the Lord showered his 
blessing upon them. The different auxiliaries rep- 
resented at the camp-meeting became better ac- 
quainted with the plans of the work of the Branch. 



Appendix. 171 

They became more firmly united in their efforts to 
carry out their plans. A greater enthusiasm was 
created. The missionary spirit was "greatly intensi- 
fied." These meetings were public meetings. All 
were invited to attend. Through the discussions 
of the various topics ; the answers to questions giv- 
en during the question hour ; the experiences given ; 
the appeals made and the prayers offered, a deeper, 
more active sympathy was brought about. 

I do not know how they came to get that hour. 
There must have been faith in the hearts of author- 
ities relative to the Woman's Missionary Society 
work. 

Woman's Missionary Society. 

Where it does not seem practicable to have daily 
conventions let us have at least one "Woman's 
Missionary Society Day." Endeavor to have the 
entire day devoted to the subject of missions, 
every meeting a missionary meeting. Each of 
the prayer-meetings could take up a particular 
department of the missionary work of the church, 
to present their needs and to pray for them — 
the early morning prayer-meetings, Home Con- 
ference Missions; the 9 o'clock prayer-meeting, 
Western Missions, and the evening prayer-meeting, 
Foreign Missions. Let the children's hour be spent 
in the interest of Mission Band work. Let the af- 
ternoon hour be in charge of members of the Wo- 
man's Missionary Society. The program should 
consist of missionary addresses, readings, music, 



172 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

recitations, etc, setting forth the object and 
methods of the Woman's Missionary Society 
and what we havee accomplished, as well as 
the great need of missionary work. Solicit sub- 
scriptions for Missionary Tidings. Make an appeal 
for missionary offerings. Let this be a day in which 
the banner of our King Immanuel be made to float 
high— a day in which the glorious triumphs of 
Christianity be well set forth. For how can this be 
better done than through the work of missions ? Let 
the members of the Woman's Missionary Society 
realize that this is peculiarly their day; the day in 
which they may in a special sense work for the pro- 
motion of the glory of God. 

Children's Work. 

The daily children's hour at camp-meetings af? 
fords an excellent opportunity for the presentation 
of our Mission Band work and for doing missionary- 
work in general. The Committee on Children's 
Work should try to have the subject of missions 
presented as often as possible at the children's meet- 
ings. This could be done by means of missionary 
leaflets, missionary stories, and important facts 
about missions. Unless I am very much mistaken, 
such requests and suggestions would be favorably 
received by our presiding elders. The object and 
methods of our Mission Band work should be ex- 
plained. 

World's Penny Helpers should be shown and 
"Banks of Blessings," and an earnest effort be made 



Appendix. 173 

to have them distributed. The Cradle Roll should 
also be mentioned, and the beautiful little certificate 
shown with its place for the tracing of the baby's 
tiny hand. These certificates are the means not only 
of interesting the tiny children, but the mothers 
also. 

Our Mission Band paper, the Missionary Evan- 
gelicaly with its bright stories of missionary work 
and interesting reports from our various Mission 
Bands should be shown and subscriptions taken. 

In conclusion, let every member of the Wo- 
man's Missionary Society who attends a camp- 
meeting this year determine to improve the op^ 
portunity to work for Christ and his king- 
dom along the line of missions. Be ready to give 
an answer to every one that asks a reason for the 
love you have for missions. Preparation is needed. 
Time needs to be taken to think of th reason why 
we ourselves are interested in missions. Perhaps 
you have prayed asking God to help you to think 
for him. Help him to answer your prayer by tak- 
ing the subject of missions upon your heart and he 
will through the Holy Spirit show you many ways 
how you may reach the hearts of your friends. 

In order to do this work most effectually it must 
be done in Christ's own Spirit. "If any man speak, 

let him speak as the oracles of God that God 

in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ." 

A wide door is open before us; in the name and 
in the presence of the Holy Spirit let us enter in. 

Elizabeth Krecker. 



174 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS, 1895. 



Our New Beginning. 

With this general convention we start out with 
a new lease of life. As an organization we are 
twelve years old, but as the Woman's Missionary- 
Society of the United Evangelical Church we are 
holding our first anual meeting. While thinking of 
this, I felt that our society should adopt the words 
of Paul, "Forgetting the things which are behind 
and stretching forward to the things which are be- 
fore, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. ,, With 
thankful hearts we realize that at last we stand on 
firm ground. After the long period of struggle our 
church has come out fresh and strong. Her trou- 
bles have been blessings in disguise. New life has 
been instilled into her, new energies awakened, of 
which we were hardly aware until stern occasion 
called them forth. Then, as the women of the 
United Evangelical Church, let us "forget the 
things that are behind," stretch forward for larger, 
nobler ideals of service and press for the "Regions 
Beyond' ' — beyond our homes into our neighbors' 
homes; beyond our town into neighboring towns; 
beyond our state into neighboring states; beyond 
our country into other countries, until we reach that 
glorious time when "the earth shall be filled with 
the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the wa- 
ters cover the sea." 



Appendix. 175 

Our New Privileges. 

Our organization has come out as a new and 
improved edition of itself. With its changed name 
it has received important and valuable privileges. 
Paragraph 6y of the United Evangelical Church 
Discipline provides that the auxiliaries of the Wo- 
man's Missionary Society shall be entitled to send 
one of their members as a member of quarterly con- 
ference; and paragraph 187, article V, entitles our 
society to one member on the Board of Missions. 
This chivalrous and eminently Christian action of 
our church brethren, passed, not because it was 
asked for, but out of the pure generosity of their 
hearts, deserves our heartfelt thanks. Shall we not 
here and now express our thanks by a rising vote? 
All the women of the church have a right to join 
in. May our heavenly Father make us worthy of 
these new honors and give us wisdom to perform 
graciously and intelligently the responsible duties 
they imply. 

Another evidence of the past year that the lead- 
ers of the church approve of the desires and pur- 
poses of the Woman's Missionary Society is the 
permission given us by the General Conference to 
support two Bible women in a foreign field as soon 
as satisfactory arrangements can be made; also the 
definite aim set by General Conference of $20,000 
for the foreign fund. As soon as the foreign fund 
reaches this amount the church will establish a mis- 
sion in a heathen land. My heart thrills with grat- 
itude to God whenever I think of that stone of rec- 



176 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ognition of foreign work in the foundation of our 
United Evangelical Church. 

Twenty thousand dollars! Sometimes it 

seems a small sum, and then again so large 

how can we speedily raise it? Here is the answer: 
The 

Extra Cent-a-Day Plan 

Will do it in one month! If every one of the 
65,000 members of the United Evangelical Church 
would lay by one cent a day for the Foreign Fund 
for only one month, or thirty-one days, we should 
have $20,150 — our goal reached with one leap! 
To facilitate the carrying out of the Extra Cent-a- 
Day Plan, Mr. Samuel F. Wilkins, of Newton Cen- 
ter, Massachusetts, a member of the Congregational 
Church, and a business man, will furnish, free of 
cost, special envelopes for gathering the money. It 
seems to me every minister of the church and every 
one interested in the cause of missions ought to be 
inspired to try to get the system introduced at once. 
I am encouraged by the favor the plan has met in 
our church the past year. The East Pennsylvania 
and Platte River Conferences passed resolutions 
urging its use in their congregations. The Chicago 
(Adams Street) congregation have adopted the 
system. Here and there individuals have taken it 
up. Many have said, "That is an easy plan, it 
ought to be generally adopted." Ministers and 
presiding elders have emphasized it after I had 
presented it at camp-meetings. 

I hope a systematic endeavor for the general in- 



Appendix. 177 

troduction of the Extra Cent-a-Day Plan through- 
out the church may be one of the definite lines of 
work that will be energetically taken up the coming 
year by our society. 

The whole-hearted and enthusiastic attitude the 
Keystone Leagues of Christian Endeavor took at 
their Boston Rally toward the Foreign Fund filled 
me with joy and leads me to feel that they may be 
ready to co-operate in spreading the Extra Cent-a- 
Day Plan. Their noble aim to endeavor to raise 
during the coming year one dollar per member for 
the Foreign Fund, which would mean $14,000 is 
most inspiring. If both our organizations would 
unite in introducing the adoption of the Extra Cent- 
a-Day Plan, a foreign mission could easily be es- 
tablished within a year. Shall we not try it? 

It has been with much pleasure that we have no- 
ticed the "new departure" of the Keystone League, 
as it was characterized in the Pathfinder — the intro- 
duction of regular Mission Bands, auxiliary to the 
Woman's Missionary Society, in connection with 
their Junior Keystone Leagues. Considerable need- 
less machinery is thus done away with and the 
work of both organizations is better advanced. This 
generous action of the Keystone League and the 
good results it promises encourages me to suggest 
something still further — the adoption or adapting 
of our Junior Missionary Society constitution by 
the adult Keystone League Societies. I am sure 
our friends, the Endeavorers, would find the study 
of our monthly missionary programs very interest- 
ing and of great assistance in their work for mis- 
12 



178 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

sions, and the arrangement would in general, I feel, 
be a mutual assistance towards advancing the cause 
we both have deeply at heart. Different denomi- 
nations are urged to greater unity, how much more 
should societies of individual denominations be urged 
to unite? 

"In union there is strength." 

Along this same line of thought is another sub- 
ject in which I have been interested, and that is 
mid-week 

Monthly Missionary Prayer-Meetings. 

The way for the ideal, and therefore the mis- 
sionary, church to work is to have every member, 
young and old, interested in the cause of missions. 
To help accomplish this, an excellent plan would 
be for the different prayer-meeting classes of a 
congregation each to hold a missionary prayer- 
meeting once a month, or, better still, to have all 
the classes unite in one meeting. The missionary 
thought could be brought out in the Scripture les- 
son, and the prayers be especially for missions and 
missionaries. The leader could easily find some 
missionary facts to present. Short, suitable articles 
about missions, which now-a-days are so plentiful, 
could be read by others, and thus a most interest- 
ing and helpful program would be furnished. 
Where there is a Woman's Missionary Society 
they could furnish literature. So much good could 
be done in this way, and so easily, that it is worthy 
of the special interest of our society, and to encour- 



Appendix. 179 

age it, should be made one of our lines of work. 
The idea is to reach as many as possible with mis- 
sionary information. Some one has said, "If the 
masses will not come to the church, the church 
must go to them/' I believe in applying the same 
principle here, taking the missionary program to the 
church members if they will not come to the mis- 
sionary society. When we consider how, in many 
congregations, missionary work is hardly mentioned 
from one year's end to the other, except when the 
missionary collection is called for, and then only in 
general terms, it is small wonder that there is often 
trouble to raise the required amount. Dr. Pierson 
says, "If disciples do not wish to flame with mis- 
sionary zeal, they must avoid contact and converse 
with facts and the heroic souls who are the living 
factors of missions.'' In this connection I wish to 
speak on fostering a missionary spirit in our 

Educational Institutions. 

These are important centers of the church and 
come in touch with some of the more progressive 
of our young people, and especially with young 
ministers, so that much can be done here towards 
producing a healthful missionary spirit. When we 
read accounts of what is being done in many of the 
colleges and higher institutions of learning in our 
land, we feel as if our church ought to wake up to 
her opportunities and responsibilities in this direc- 
tion. In some of the leading colleges "from twelve 
to fifteen experienced missionaries from every quar- 



180 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ter of the globe are heard during the college yea r . 
weekly offerings by pledge cards is made use of, 
and a number of colleges support a foreign mis- 
sionary and usually a home missionary besides. 
Thus the students get a training which prepares 
them for home or foreign mission work. It is be- 
cause of these privileges afforded them that the 
great student volunteer movement has grown to be 
so large and is holding such enthusiastic gather- 
ings and sending missionaries into the foreign field. 
If we cannot begin on so large a scale, arrangements 
could be made to give missionary talks to the stu- 
dents at stated times. Some of the best mission- 
ary literature, lives of missionaries and histories of 
missions could be put into the libraries in our edu- 
cational institutions and missionary periodicals can 
be placed on the reading room tables and boxes pro- 
vided for the receipt of missionary offerings. These 
things are certainly not beyond the power of our 
schools, and I most heartily recommend the matter 
to your consideration. 

"Missionary Tidings/' 

Missionary publications are a most important 
factor in enlarging our work. Let us then increase 
our interest in the success of our own. Missionary 
Tidings being the only distinctly missionary period- 
ical in the church outside of the children's paper, it 
should receive a very good support and we should 
use every means to make it a first-class paper. Keep 
the editors well informed about the condition of the 



Appendix. 181 

work, send in brief, newsy reports and institute a 
vigorous campaign for increasing the number of 
its subscribers. While here and there we have some 
faithful canvassers who have proved what can be 
done, our present subscription list can scarcely be 
called a credit either to our zeal or ability. Out of 
a church membership of sixty-five thousand we have 
a subscription list of thirteen hundred and ninety- 
three — about one fiftieth part of the membership. 
Bro. Sampsel, Corresponding Secretary of the Mis- 
sionary Society of the East Pennsylvania Confer- 
ence, in his very helpful and inspiring letter to the 
Branch meeting of the Woman's Missionary Society 
of that conference, says, our subscription list ought 
to be ten-fold as large as it is and even suggests 
enlarging the paper, but I fear before we can carry 
out his proposition we must push the canvass vig- 
orously. 

Let us make up our minds to do this. It can be 
done. Let this be one of the things that shall be 
emphasized at this convention. 

Assistance from the Clergy. 

Much encouragement has come to us during the 
year from the ministers. The need of information 
as a means of cultivating a missionary spirit among 
our people is being realized, and the work of the 
Woman's Missionary Society is more fully appreci- 
ated as a result. Last spring, notwithstanding the 
press of business on account of the church changes, 
not only time was given for presenting our cause, 



182 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

but hearty co-operation was pledged in their res- 
olutions. The articles in the Evangelical written 
by Brother Heil, Brother Jonas, and others, along 
the line of missions and giving, as well as kindly 
recognition of our work by the editor has been 
very encouraging. The Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety department in the Zeitschrift means progress. 
We hail it with special delight in behalf of our Ger- 
man sisters. 

Our Dependence Upon God. 

The foundation of missionary work was laid by 
prayer in apostolic times when Barnabas and Saul 
were sent away from Antioch after fasting and 
prayer. Modern foreign missions originated through 
the persevering, believing prayer of William Carey. 
The work of preaching the gospel to every creature 
was begun when the strong walls of idolatry, super- 
stition and prejudice surrounding heathen nations 
seemed impenetrable, and when the great majority 
of Christ's followers considered it wild enthusiasm 
to take the gospel to the heathen. Behold what 
prayer has wrought ! The doors of the whole world 
are standing open, giving access to more than one 
thousand millions of human beings on the one 
hand, while on the other hand God's power has 
been working mightily among the people. I remem- 
ber well the joy it caused among the missionaries 
in Japan when we heard that sixty thousand were 
brought into the kingdom of Christ within six 
months from among the people of India. And we 



Appendix. 183 

are told that during that same year some twenty 
persons were prompted to send $4,000,000 to mis- 
sions. Thus we see what simple believing prayer 
accomplishes. Then let us pray with increased ear- 
nestness for a deep, intelligent missionary spirit 
throughout our beloved church, for consecrated 
zeal, and for noble off erings worthy of the royal 
cause in which we are engaged. 

I believe some of our sister missionary societies, 
as- well as other Christian organizations, such as the 
Salvation Army, the Christian Endeavor Society, 
and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
have adopted the noon-tide hour of prayer. I have 
thought that hour might be more readily remember- 
ed, and as there is, in my mind, special beauty and 
power in united prayer, I would suggest that our 
twilight hour be changed to the noon-day hour for 
united prayer. I also hope that our special days of 
prayer may be faithfully observed, and in the name 
of our society would ask the whole church to join 
with us in their observance. 

In concluding let me call to your minds words 
recently quoted in the Evangelical. They are cred- 
ited to Dr. Samuel Miller, of Princeton. If we 
were asked how a church at home might grow in 
numbers, strength and spiritual power, he would 
reply: "Let that church begin in deep earnest to 
exert itself to send the gospel to the benighted and 
perishing. However small its strength in numbers 
or finance, let it arouse that little land engage with 
further prayer and heart-felt love in contributions 



184 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

for spreading the gospel throughout the world. The 
very effort will enlarge and build it up." 

Let me also repeat for you what Miss Willard 
wrote to her union. "What we want," she said, "is 
not energy, but radiant energy; not warmth, but 
zeal; not vigor, but ardor; not boiling water, but 
steam; not love, but more love." 

Elizabeth Krecker. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS, 1896. 



Another year in the brief history of our society 
has slipped away quickly. Quickly, I say, because 
it tarried too short a time for us to fill it with all 
that we had hoped. Yet we have much reason to 
rejoice in the work done and the progress made in 
its quietly speeding months. 

The East Pennsylvania Branch took some import- 
ant steps toward greater effort, at their last conven- 
tion. The Woman's Missionary Society was repre- 
sented at nine of the ten camp-meetings held in that 
conference district. Over two hundred subscribers 
for the Missionary Tidings were secured at these 
nine camp-meetings and many have been aroused 
from a state of apathy to at least some interest in 
our work and purpose. 

The Central Pennsylvania Branch doubled the 
number of their auxiliaries during the year. Much 
of the spirit of self-sacrifice and earnest effort is 
found among their number. 

Illinois is moving nobly forward in various lines 



Appendix. 185 

and takes the front rank in the progressiveness of 
her spirit. 

Platte River Branch is working bravely, and the 
interest in the Woman's Missionary Society is stead- 
ily increasing. The Pittsburg Branch has promised 
new interest in the work. Mrs. Garner, the hard- 
working leader of our work in this Branch, per- 
severed in her noble endeavors in the face of sev- 
eral difficulties and many trials. She is one of our 
most devoted, self-sacrificing women and I hope 
that it may not be long before she may have the hap- 
piness of seeing the Branch for which she has done 
so much, thoroughly organized. 

Des Moines Conference has taken hold of our 
work in extending a cordial welcome to us for full 
entrance into her midst. 

We must all rejoice at the enthusiasm shown at 
the missionary rally of the young people of our 
church at the International Christian Endeavor Con- 
vention this year. The resolutions passed in refer- 
ence to entering work in some foreign field is inspir- 
ing. 

Prime Object of Our Society. 

I feel much the great need of the aims and pur- 
pose of our society being more generally known. 
I have learned from experience that where we are 
best known, there we are most highly esteemed and 
appreciated. 

In the second article of our Constitution we find 
the prime object is to aid the missionary enterprise 
of the church. In order to do this, the earnest sys- 



1 86 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

tematic co-operation of the women throughout the 
church is to be engaged and thus aid is given by 
"extra funds, efforts, and prayers, the dissemination 
of missionary intelligence, and the cultivation of a 
missionary spirit in the family and the church." I 
think that the word prayer might stand first in 
order, then effort, then funds, for the organization 
originated in prayer; next to prayer, the effort of 
getting into congregations for the purpose of pre- 
senting our work, and that very often requires so 
tremendous an effort that in many places we have 
not been able to make one great enough, but where 
we can reach the people and organize an auxiliary, 
the extra efforts are continued by following the 
monthly programs provided in the Missionary Ti- 
dings, distributing literature furnished by our Bu- 
reau of Literature, in bringing in dues, offerings, 
and prayers for the cause of missions ; by having 
thank-offering meetings and anniversary meetings, 
and by practicing self-denial, by practical missionary 
work among churches, and by holding branch and 
general conventions. By these various means we en- 
deavor to teach our people the purpose of Christ 
Jesus our Lord in his world-wide plan of salvation ; 
the needs of the world, the claims of the heathen, 
personal responsibility in the evangelization of the 
world, and proportionate, systematic, cheerful, self- 
sacrificing giving unto the Lord. They are thus 
inspired to do personal work, to make personal sac- 
rifice for Jesus' sake for the purpose of extending 
his kingdom; and they are made to realize more 
fully the great need of our church. 



Appendix. 187 

What better thing can be done for the extension 
of God's work through the instrumentality of the 
United Evangelical Church than to educate our 
women on the subject of missions and bring them 
to a sense of their responsibilities and duties along 
that line? The only better thing would be to edu- 
cate both men and women, and I wish that our 
United Evangelical Church might become one grand 
missionary society that would make a thorough 
study of missions, so that all our members might 
realize that they are "Saved to Serve," and so 
would go forth with untold zeal and enthusiasm to 
give the gospel to the unreached masses every- 
where. 

Need of Information. 

One great reason that the money contributed for 
missionary purposes is so far from being equal 
to the demand is a lack of information on the sub- 
ject of missions. A cause of which we are ignorant 
will not get much help from us. But let the crying 
needs of the world be known and help will come. 
During the past summer I had a new illustration 
of this fact among our people. At one of the camp- 
meetings T attended I met a pastor, his face all 
aglow with joy and interest as he greeted me. A 
phase of missionary work had been begun (in the 
town in which he was stationed) among the people 
of his and other congregations. He was so full of 
it that he began to tell me about it the first oppor- 
tunity he had. He expected me to be interested 



1 88 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

in it, and I was highly delighted to learn of it* 
With the greatest enthusiasm he told me of how 
the various congregations of the town were enter- 
taining and providing for over one hundred "Fresh- 
air-fund" children from New York City, thirty-five 
of whom were among his own people. When I 
asked him how the people became interested in the 
plan, he said: "Well, first of all, an agent came 
around and gave a talk in all the churches. Then 
literature was distributed, and each of the ministers 
was asked to preach a sermon about it, which they 
did. By that time some of the families were ready 
to receive the children. Some were sent for and 
seventeen were taken by my people. After th chil- 
dren came and were seen, more became interested, 
and eighteen more were asked for by my members. 
O, it was doing a great amount of good ! The whole 
town is being stirred, and it brought new life into 
our church. It is doing us much good; it has 
brought us many new and interesting experiences." 
All that was needed to procure those dear, needy 
children a vacation and clothes, was information. 
If their need had not been presented* the children 
would have had to endure great suffering ; and the 
families who provided for their temporal and spir- 
itual wants would have missed the great blessing 
that followed as a natural result. This was all done 
where a new church had just been built. Thus we 
again see that with information comes interest, and 
with interest, liberality. Right here allow me to 
quote from an address given by Mr. S. L. Mershon 
at the Cleveland Christian Endeavor Convention. 



Appendix. 189 

"We must have information as a basis for mission- 
ary giving and missionary praying. He who gives 
without knowledge is a spendthrift. He who goes 
on an errand without knowing why he goes is a 
fool, he who prays for a cause about which he 
is wilfully ignorant is a hypocrite. It is a bad prac- 
tice for a man to give without knowledge. We be- 
lieve that God Almighty has no use for an uncon- 
secrated dollar and wilful ignorance is no basis for 
consecration. It is a pertinent* question. Why 
this amazing ignorance of missions in the Chris- 
tian church? The solution must be found some- 
where in the answer to three questions. 1. Is the 
pulpit dead? 2. Is the message dead? 3. Is the 
conscience dead? In other words, is it the fault of 
the pulpit or pew, or both? Has the pulpit lost its 
power to educate along missionary lines? Is it 
possible that 12,000 Methodist pastors are preach- 
ing missions and we millions of Methodist lay- 
men are not contributing one cent for that cause? 
Can it be that 6,000 Presbyterian pastors are preach- 
ing the great commission, while the unused wealth 
of that church is piling mountain high ? Well may 
we ask a similar question of the other denomina- 
tions. It will be an awful time when the pastors 
who didn't preach the last command shall march to 
the judgment seat with millions of their denomina- 
tions who don't give, shall be face to face with the 
heathen of their generation who have never heard 
of the Christ. O, Sinai, with thine awfulness ! O, 
death, with all thy possible sting of sorrow! O, 
bleeding heart of Christ, with all thy lost power to 



190 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

save, what will it all mean? It seems to me that 
heaven, earth and hell will recoil from the tableau 
ere it burst into a scene the like of which no mind 
can picture or tongue can speak/' 

Let us therefore for the sake of Christ, who gave 
himself that all might live, for the sake of the re- 
sponsibility that is resting upon us ; for the sake of 
the reward that is awaiting us, continue and re- 
double our energies to disseminate missionary in- 
telligence and to get our ministers throughout the 
church to preach missionary sermons, Many peo- 
ple have no idea of the amount of information con- 
tained in the missionary leaflets we distribute. Some 
of our ministers have been greatly surprised and 
moved to deep interest in the work from leaflets I 
have given them to read. One brother, to whom, 
not long ago, I had given several, said: "I believe 
it would be a good plan to send for some of these 
and distribute among our people, and I am going 
to work along that line." He enjoyed reading the 
leaflet very much, and as he read, exclaimed: 
"That's good !" and "That's very good !" He had 
never been particularly interested in our work be- 
fore this time. Dr. Pierson has said, "Women's 
societies are doing a wonderful amount of good by 
scattering missionary literature broadcast in light 
condensed forms." His language well describes 
those two little eight-page leaflets, given away or 
sold for two, three, or five cents apiece, and ten 
cents per dozen, which have been sent out from the 
rooms of the women's societies. Many of them 
have gone through two editions, and that popular 



Appendix. 191 

one of "Mrs. Pickett's Missionary Box" through 
four editions. Besides all that is done with the 
printing press there is frequently a bureau of ex- 
change at society headquarters, and a regular busi- 
ness is made of supplying hektograph and typewrit- 
er copies of thousands of mission reports and let- 
ters yearly, to be read in society meetings. In 
these and similar ways a great amount of fresh in- 
formation from the field is constantly kept in cir- 
culation. 

Foreign Mission Day. 

Every congregation in the church should have 
one Sabbath in the year set apart as "Foreign Mis- 
sion Day." Nothing quickens the entire life of a 
church, like an interest in foreign work. The need 
in the foreign field is so much greater than at home 
that one's deepest heart is stirred in considering it. 
Then, too, the condition of the heathen helps us to 
realize more perfectly what our own state would 
be if we were without the gospel. The importance 
which foreign missions have to hold in the Christian 
church, although still far from what it should be, 
makes it an essential element to every intelligent 
Christian congregation to be informed and inter- 
ested in this branch of Christian work. A pastor of 
a congregation should feel cause for shame and 
chagrin in these days if his congregation is ignor- 
ant of what is being done for the heathen, and of 
the vast amount still to be done. No pastor needs 
fear that the preaching of sermons on foreign mis- 



192 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

sions will take away from the interest in work at 
home, the tendency is quite the contrary, to inten- 
sify one's interest in all Christian work. Let me 
here quote a collection of "reasons why we should 
be interested in the giving of the gospel to the hea- 
thens/' which I lately noticed: 1. Because "God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." 2. Because it is the com- 
mand of Christ. 3. Because he has given us the 
gospel in trust for the world. 4. Because if we are 
not faithful to our trust, the world will perish in 
its sins. 5. Because if we are faithful to our 
trust, the world will be saved and the reward will 
be ours. 6. Because Christ has taught us to say, 
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as 
it is in heaven." 7. Because no one without active 
interest in the foreign missionary work can sin- 
cerely make this prayer. 8. Because foreign mis- 
sionary work has brought the church in return a 
bountiful blessing. 9. Because to stop all its work 
for the world, would bring to the church paralysis 
and death. 10. Because Christian love is essentially 
world-wide, it utterly refuses to be limited. 11. 
Because this world-wide love includes and fosters 
love for our country. 12. Because the plea, to save 
our own land is to save the world, has force only 
when the church at home is active in saving the 
world. 13. Because home missions had made lit- 
tle progress when by the direction of the Holy 
Spirit foreign missions were begun from Antioch 
in Syria. 14. Because if there is good reason for 



Appendix. 193 

one church or one member neglecting it, there is 
the same for the whole church to neglect it. 

Will you take the responsibility of refusing to 
obey the great commandment of love to my neigh- 
bor? That broken-hearted mother in India, that 
hopeless girl in China, that sufferer in Africa or 
Japan, is as surely my neighbor as the needy one 
at my door. If I refuse to do anything for mis- 
sions, I refuse to let other people live; I leave them 
to suffer all varieties of physical torture — to burn 
and drown and starve. I subject bodies as sensitive 
as ours to cruel practices of ignorant fanatics; I 
leave my sister bound by the chains of slavery 
worse than death ; I leave them to endure a hopeless 
separation from their loved ones; I leave them to 
live and die robbed of all that makes life worth 
living, tortured by all that makes death dreadful. 
But why lengthen the list? It is an endless story 
of suffering. The responsibility of not doing for 
them is too awful for any Christian woman to 
bear. The need and the ability to serve draws us 
closer together at the feet of him who died for all. 
The responsibility of not doing is the responsibility 
of hindering the progress of Christ's kingdom. The 
tiny cog-wheel in the mighty engine is a very insig- 
nificant part of a great machine; the fact that it is 
a part makes it very important. Stop the tiny wheel 
and for a time you stop the great engine. The 
little wheel must do its work or be removed and 
a new one substituted. In the end it can not stop 
the work of the engine, but it causes confusion and 
loss of time and power. So each member of 
13 



194 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Christ's kingdom has a place and a work. If we 
stop, if we refuse to do, for a time the work is hin- 
dered. God can remove us and put some one else 
in our place, but there is a loss to the world and to 
us. While we wait some one is dying. Your dollar, 
your prayer, your word, may seem a very little 
thing to withhold from so great a work, but only 
God knows how great the loss if withheld. But, 
saddest of all, the responsibility of not doing is 
that of robbing the Master of lives bought with his 
own life. O, friends, how can we think of his life, 
his agony, his shameful death, and what these have 
given us, and refuse to let him have his own for 
such gracious service! The responsibility of not 
doing covers all the interest of a life. But for you 
and me the question to-day is, Will I do it? God 
grant that the answer may come from every one, 
"I will do what I can!" 

Home Work. 

We may be looked upon as only interested in 
foreign work and by others as only interested in 
home work. Let us try to be wise as serpents and 
as harmless as doves. If any of us are one-sided let 
us not be satisfied until we are all aflame with love 
for missions. "Christian love is essentially world- 
wide, it utterly refuses to be limited. This world- 
wide love includes and fosters love for our own 
country." No one need be afraid of the spirit of 
love for foreign missions and if some should be on- 



Appendix. 195 

ly interested in home missions, if you only will en- 
courage that interest to a great enough degree, you 
will finally include other lands. Because of hard 
times and the many poor everywhere I feel as if we 
should be as helpful as possible towards these needy 
ones. Committees might be appointed to look after 
those in our immediate neighborhoods and clothes 
gathered and distributed. In some places by not 
much effort great good can be done. And we must 
not forget to heed the calls for boxes for our West- 
ern missionaries. Some weeks ago when I was 
on Ransom charge in East Pennsylvania Confer- 
ence, I found one of the most interesting sections 
of our country that I have ever seen. The valley 
up the northeast branch of the Susquehanna be- 
tween Wilkes-Barre and Ransom, a distance of 
about twelve miles, is populated by about 150,000 
people, many of whom are entirely uncared for 
spiritually. On Sunday as we were looking over 
that valley mountain-top and Bro. Shaffer was tell- 
ing what few laborers there were among the many 
thousands of inhabitants, my heart was moved with 
compassion and I felt that I should like to have our 
society have a share in work for them. O, the 
neglected places are the places that should be 
looked after. It seems as if the different confer- 
ences should have special missionaries to look after 
such neglected districts and since the money of the 
Woman's Missionary Society is extra money, it 
would seem only right that what they give should 
fro towards supporting some extra work. 



196 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Miscellaneous Suggestions. 

It seems to me that we have indeed come to the 
year in which the foreign fund should swell to 
twenty thousand dollars and the United Evangel- 
ical Church be able to begin work among the hea- 
then. With the combined efforts of the Keystone 
League and the Woman's Missionary Society it 
may be accomplished. God has prospered us mar- 
velously as a church. May we soon show in this 
way our gratefulness to him for all his goodness 
toward us. I feel that we should be able to make 
good use of our "Pledge Cards" this year for the 
foreign fund. I believe that they will prove very 
helpful in getting persons to decide upon giving a 
certain amount toward that fund. After they have 
pledged themselves, they can take any one of the 
various plans for gathering the money — thank-of- 
fering boxes, self-denial, the "extra-cent-a-day 
plan," by earning extra money, but studying the 
art of economy to save not only for ourselves, but 
for the Lord's work. 

My experience of the past summer has brought 
me to think that one Woman's Missionary Day at 
camp-meetings should come after the Conference 
Missionary Day. Then after the people had given 
and subscribed to the conference collection what 
would be given to our work would be truly extra 
as it is intended. We stand on the threshold of an- 
other year's work. Let us enter its opening por- 
tals with true and loyal hearts ever looking unto 



Appendix, 197 

Jesus, ready to do all his biddings. Then, trusting 
in his strength alone, let us press forward. 

Elizabeth Krecker. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS, 1898, 



Greetings, greetings to all on this the New Year's 
Day of our Woman's Missionary Society. Let us 
have a kindly benediction to rest on the work of the 
Old Year. I only wish I could express the joy and 
satisfaction I feel in thinking of the much good 
work that has been done and attempted by our 
good workers everywhere. Let us come with 
prayer and zeal to what there is to do during the 
twelve months before us, the waiting, fresh, mobile 
New Year, upon whose threshold we even now 
stand, the pulse-beats of whose nascent life must 
this instant be throbbing in our midst. Just now, 
as we are opening our meeting, the quadrennial 
General Conference begins its deliberations, and for 
what great things are we not hoping, yes, looking, 
as the outcome ! 

Our Relation to the Church. 

For we, as missionary women, have our high am- 
bitions for the missionary achievements of our 
church. We take to ourselves the commands given 
the Christian disciples to publish abroad a knowl- 
edge of Jesus Christ. We feel that it is incum- 



198 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

bent upon the Christian church to evangelize the 
world, even the uttermost parts of it. We are confi- 
dent that a general missionary interest through our 
little branch of the Christian church would make it 
possible for her to participate in foreign mission 
work amply in proportion to her size, and that in 
the extension of her arms to help those far away, 
she will strengthen her powers and resources every- 
where. We know that in order to engage in foreign 
missions she needs no moneyed friends, although 
they can make her possibilities all the greater. We 
have dreamed of the missionary power there would 
be, were our woman's societies re-inforced by the 
mighty sympathy of the church at large. Ah, we 
sometimes think, were all the church but instructed 
in missions, were all her members but generous to- 
ward missions ! All that is what we hope for ; and 
to educate her, as well as ourselves ; to interest her, 
as well as to deepen our own interest, and to draw 
forth her gifts — such is our aim. 

To interest and educate the church, and draw out 
her gifts? The whole church? Is that our field? 
Yes, at least that. Not less than the church. It is 
not our sole concern that we deal with our own 
membership, that we make our Woman's Missionary 
Society women zealous, intelligent, generous. We, 
as a Woman's Missionary Society, are a mis- 
sionary organization and feel that we have 
a right and privilege to work with all those who 
are or can be interested in missions. If we have a 
more vital knowledge of missions and a livelier 
sense of our duty toward missions than others, is 



Appendix. 199 

it not for us to teach them ? Is it not for us to lead 
them? Yes, it is our avowed high privilege to 
work for the whole church, to instruct our people 
everywhere on missions, and we then shall look, as 
a natural result, for their sympathy, co-operation 
and financial support. 

However, in cherishing these aims with regard 
to the church, we realize that not the most apathet- 
ic person whom we would seek to enlist in our 
cause, is more alive than we to the fact that it takes 
more than a mere declaration or an exclamation to 
accomplish our aims. We would show ourselves 
ignorant of all human nature were we to suppose 
that time and persistence, repetition upon repeti- 
tion, were not necessary. Just now in Philadel- 
phia many women are working for the City Councils 
to provide much needed accommodations for nu- 
merous school children. One of these women, in 
referring to the labor necessary to achieve results, 
remarked, "If you tell people a thing once, they al- 
ways forget it ; if you tell them a thing every day, 
they never forget it." We cannot educate the 
church in a moment, nor interest her in a moment, 
nor draw out her gifts in a moment. We can, per- 
haps, in a moment touch some heart to a spasmodic 
sympathy, prayer, and gift. But that is not what 
we want as our ultimate achievement. We want a 
deeply underlying, all-permeating missionary spirit 
through our church. And to have that, we know 
that we must work patiently, perseveringly, energet- 
ically, steadily, having no more of the spasmodic 
in our methods than we wish to see in our results. 



200 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Our Conception of the Function of the ; 

CHURCH; 

We want our people to regard their association 
with the church not merely as a means of enjoying 
religious privileges, but as an entrance into activ- 
ity for spreading a knowledge of God. We want 
them to take missionary money as much for grant- 
ed as the pastor's salary. We want them to be as 
much interested in the conversion of their fellowmen 
as they are in the spirituality of their church prayer- 
meetings. We do not want our church to be a 
stagnant pool of water^ but a flowing river, that 
nourishes the plains through which it passes. No 
missions mean stagnation, missions stand for Chris- 
tian activity. The missionary spirit is the spirit of 
life; the non-missionary spirit is the lifeless, the 
motionless, the death-spirit. The non-missionary 
dwells upon itself, upon the one congregation, the 
one pastor, the one conference, the one country; 
the missionary spirit sees beyond the conflicts of 
one individual soul, beyond one church edifice, be- 
yond one conference. It can take in all the world 
of souls into its large heart and mind. And para- 
doxical as it may seem, the missionary spirit, while 
dwelling on others, is a greater power in the higher 
growth of self than the non-missionary spirit, which 
makes self its object. We need not set apart a 
portion of ourselves and, as it were, label it "Mis- 
sionary Department. ,, Let the missionary be our 
state of being, our general attitude, our spirit. We 
want our church to be one grand, great mission, we 



Appendix. 201 

want every aspect of its work to glow with a halo 
of missionary interest, we want every member to be 
missionary. Had I the power, I would not stop at 
organizing a Woman's Missionary Society in every 
congregation and making every woman a member 
of it, I would want so to enlarge its borders as to 
admit every man in a full membership and would 
then want to incorporate the society, as it would 
then stand into the body of the church so that it 
would no longer be a distinct society, but would be 
of the church itself, so that no one would enter into 
the communion of the United Evangelical Church, 
but would by that act identify himself with mis- 
sions at home and abroad. Then, indeed, the church 
would be able to fulfil her function of functions, her 
peculiar function of evangelizing the world. 

Unifying the Church and Missionary Society. 

It is with this conception of the function of the 
church and of missions that we wish to approach 
our work. (My dear fellow workers, I know that 
I am now speaking to some of our foremost wo- 
men, who have thought out for themselves much of 
what I have said and will go on through my ad- 
dress to say, but when I speak I take the society as 
a whole, and am now referring to it as a whole.) 

We wish thoroughly to understand, and we wish 
to permeate our work with the idea that the church 
fundamentally is a missionary force and that it is 
our aim to assist in infusing a missionary spirit 
throughout the church. 



202 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

When we come to put our ideas into practice, we 
will find it would be very helpful if we could iden- 
tify missionary work more closely with what Is 
ordinarily termed the usual church work. In the 
past there has been some suggestion of this on my 
part and there have been some manifestations of • t 
in some of our societies, and I believe that by laying 
emphasis on it and by trying to work it out, we 
shall gain much toward the achievement of our aim. 

Missions in the Church Prayer-Meeting. 

There is the church prayer-meeting which I have 
often before mentioned in this connection. Let the 
missionary idea find its way there. Many people, 
fluent usually, often do not know what to pray or 
what to say in connection with missions. Many of 
you will recall, as I speak, the visit paid the prayer- 
meeting by our wide-awake Chicago auxiliary and 
what a mutual stimulus it was felt to be. If there 
is more than one class in the congregation can they 
not meet together once a month for the missionary 
topic ? Personally, I believe that in most congrega- 
tions it would be better to give the Wo- 
man's Missionary Society program at that 
time in the hearing of all the prayer-meet-- 
ing goers instead of separately before our own 
numbers only, or with the pastor, or, very seldom, 
a few others. Interest would in this way be deveU 
oped among many who would otherwise be indiffer- 
ent, and missionary information, at all events, woul4 
be disseminated. The program, too, would, I think. 



Appendix. 203 

be improved. The larger and more promiscuous 
audience would stimulate the women of the society 
to do their best and would give an opportunity for 
more men and outsiders to take part. The business 
could be transacted after the prayer-meeting, or, in 
good season before. 

In the Church Service: the Pastor. 

We may venture something more than the church 
prayer-meeting in order to increase the intimacy be- 
tween the church and missions. And we have 
sometimes ventured it. We may enter into the 
church service proper. Some of our pastors oc- 
casionally preach a missionary sermon, either 
prompted by their own inclinations, or at the re- 
quest of the Board of Missions, or through our ef- 
forts. Or, if they are thoroughly interested in mis- 
sions themselves, they and their audience too will 
find the missionary idea asserting itself in one way 
or another in other sermons and at other times; 
here a remark, there a suggestion, an exhortation, 
some missionary facts. Those are the pastors after 
our own heart — the Woman's Missionary So- 
ciety heart! — and they are just the sort of 
pastors which we wish to help in developing 
our work. We want to interest the indifferent 
pastor ; to enlist him as our ally ; to give missionary 
facts, and lend him our missionary books; to urge 
him to preach missionary sermons. This is work 
that some of us are doing, and it is a work of great 
importance. 



204 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

The pastor is by tradition the shepherd of the 
flock. All the people are accustomed to regard him 
as knowing just a little more about the teachings 
of the Bible and the work of the church than any- 
one else. His business is church work. In anything 
to do with church work, he is usually taken as au- 
thority, although there are always people who think 
independently. . His attitude can almost guarantee 
the success or failure of any undertaking. If he *s 
indifferent the people think it cannot be of much 
account. Wherever I go in my work of organiza- 
tion, I realize this fact. Throughout the church life 
his is the dominant figure. If he lead at all, should 
he not be at the van with the Christian missionary 
enlightenment of our day, the instructor of the peo- 
ple on missions ? What an ally is the pastor to gain,, 
and how careful should we be in our efforts to win 
his sympathy! 

In the; Sunday-School. 

The Sunday-school as a Sunday-school can have 
a missionary side. Why not have a periodical Sun- 
day-school missionary rally? The local Woman's 
Missionary Society, and Young People's Missionary 
Society, and Mission Band can help with the 
program. So can the Sunday-school officers and 
teachers, whether they are members of the mission- 
ary societies or not. Let the regular lesson be some- 
what curtailed, have missionary music — solo, quar- 
tette and congregational singing, a recitation or 



Appendix. 205 

some other missionary exercise, and a good, brief, 
address, and gather in the pennies for missions. 

Missionary Raujes. 

But the Sunday-school rally suggests other ral- 
lies, which in their various forms we have found 
potent in developing missionary interest. I am glad 
that their number is increasing. At many camp- 
meetings Woman's Missionary Society Day is com- 
ing to be a regular feature, without it some would 
seem incomplete. At Perkasie Park this summer 
a returned missionary from Japan of the M. E. 
Church, and a Macedonian student for the ministry 
and your president each addressed the meeting. 
Woman's Missionary Society mottoes and appropri- 
ate music added to the missionary atmosphere. In 
Baltimore the fifteen members of the Olive Branch 
Woman's Missionary Society held a series of "At 
Homes" to their friends. Musical and literary pro- 
grams were rendered and refreshments were served 
attractively on decorated tables, thus realizing for 
the society about twenty-five dollars. The society 
at North Dixon, Illinois, for their Thank-Offering 
meeting invited their sisters from several neigh- 
boring towns to meet with them in the afternoon. 
They had a short, interesting program, light 
refreshments and an offering of $7. At a number 
of places speakers from auxiliaries of our Woman's 
Missionary Society addressed public missionary 
meetings. Among these were some of our vet- 
eran speakers Mrs. Divan, Mrs. Shenberger, Mrs. 



206 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

McLean, Mrs. Jamison, Miss Grace Wiest, Mrs. 
Albright, and Miss Bordlemay, all of them so gen- 
uinely and whole-heartedly in sympathy with the 
work for which they speak that they can not fail to 
do good. 

The rally at Albright College perhaps we may 
now with great rejoicing regard as a regu- 
lar annual occurrence. Last fall somee of 
the Woman's Missionary Society women were 
quick enough to waylay some of our Woman's 
Board delegates, show them the attractive college 
and invite them to participate in a program of mis- 
sionary music and addresses. One of our brother 
champions, Rev. B. J. Smoyer, also was there and 
spoke. You will certainly agree with me that an 
occasion like this is good for our young students. 
They often have special influence over their home 
companions. Let us make it a missionary influ- 
ence. They may not hear about missions at home. 
Let us teach them. Or they hear a great deal about 
missions at home. Let us not allow them to forget 
at college. We want our educated young people to 
be educated on missions. One of our young men 
who went to Yale College while there was greatly 
stirred in a zeal for missions. Would that the young 
people who go to our institutions might be similarly 
roused ! We would like at least one annual mission- 
ary rally at each of our educational centers, and a 
regular monthly missionary prayer-meeting. In 
connection with missionary rallies, Mr. Newton 
Dubs' missionary stereopticon lecture may be men- 
tioned as a most attractive and instructive program 



Appendix. 207 

for one. The pictures tell so much and so well and 
his accompanying address is so impressively mis- 
sionary, that the two together can do much 
in public meetings. I wish many more aux- 
iliaries might be organized, as that at Millersville 
was a result of his lecture and I wish many con- 
gregations would write him to address the public 
under their auspices. 

The Monthly Program. 

There are none of us, I suppose, but realize that 
there are great possibilities educationally in the pro- 
gram for our monthly meetings, and yet I believe 
that very few can look back to the meetings each 
month of our respective auxiliaries as having ful- 
filed their possibilities. If we wish to argue for 
missions must we not have facts, if we wish to 
teach others about the heathen or about missionary 
work, must we not know something about the hea- 
then and about mission work to tell? Nearly ev- 
ery one has general ideas of the misery of foot- 
binding in China, of children sacrificed to reptiles in 
India, of slave and rum abominations in Africa, and 
of a general degradation of women throughout hea- 
thendom, and perhaps some further ideas, crude 
enough. Perhaps every one could mention the 
names of a missionary or two, and at all events say 
that Christian churches generally are establishing 
missions throughout heathendom, and that these 
missions are not nearly adequate to the needs. 
But — can the average member of our Wo- 



208 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

man's Missionary Society refute the argu- 
ment that foreign missions are a failure by 
facts from some actual mission station? Can she 
enumerate with definiteness the physical, unspeak- 
able sufferings that heathen religions directly in- 
flict upon women ? Can she compare with reference 
to conditions in the present world and hopes for the 
future, the Christian faith with any one heathen 
belief? Can she relate the heroic achievements and 
romantic exploits of some one, just one celebrated 
missionary? The answers to these questions she 
may get in her private reading. Perhaps. It is 
possible. But we cannot as a society depend on any 
such contingency as that. 

Let us give our meetings the atmosphere of an 
interesting study-class. It would be an enormous 
help if each auxiliary could, as the Harrisburg aux- 
iliary has done, buy a missionary library, if it be 
no more than a few standard books. At all events, 
for the convenience of those who cannot have 
access to more than can be put into the limited space 
of Tidings, I would strongly urge adding (some- 
times I know it has been done) to the program 
matter, a short list of the books and magazines that 
pertain to the subject. Will not those who have 
charge of the program bear this in mind ? Another 
suggestion: Let us more generally encourage indi- 
vidual work. In preparing a program, why not di- 
vide it into topics, as occasionally has been done, so 
that there will be opportunity for a number of per- 
sons to participate? For example, let us suppose 
that the subject for a certain month is Uganda, 



Appendix. 209 

Africa. The Program Committee can furnish the 
following topics: 1. Uganda and Its People; 2. 
Mackay; 3. Mtesa and Mwanga; 4. Bishop Har- 
rington; 5. Persecution; 6. Bishop Tucker; 7. 
Latest Martyrs; 8. Outlook for Uganda. Besides 
furnishing their topics and the usual material in 
Tidings, let them remind the auxiliaries of the E. 
M. Bliss's Encyclopedia of Missions, of the Church 
Missionary Atlas, of the Life of Mackay, of the 
Missionary Review for June and July, 1897, an< 3 of 
Dr. Pierson's Miracles of Missions, all of which will 
furnish additional information. The topics can be 
assigned to eight different members for them to 
handle, each for a few, definite number of minutes, 
either by written papers, by speaking, or by reading 
from book or periodical. Some discussion may fol- 
low, or questions, or music. As a change, the 
studies can be somewhat curtailed ; and more music 
be added and other exercises. But let the general 
spirit of the meeting be one of missionary study. 
I am aware, while making these suggestions, of the 
movement among our Illinois women for Reading 
Circles, for which I am particularly glad, because 
it signifies an interest in missionary study and a rec- 
ognition of its importance. Where Missionary 
Reading Circles can be successfully carried on, they 
will be productive of much good, of that I am cer- 
tain. I am not so confident as to whether or not our 
auxiliaries in general will find it practicable to 
have them. But the monthly program we all have, 
and of it much can be made. 
14 



210 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Our Gifts. 

Our offerings to missions, the gathered littles from 
our friends, the mightier larger contributions, what 
a stewardship we have over them ! What a sacrifice 
they sometimes represent ! What prayers and sym- 
pathy accompany them ! It is most gratifying to 
know of the many generous offerings our women 
have made. Highland Park, Illinois, in two years 
has given $500.00, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in one 
day raised $98.00, the fifteen members of Grove- 
land, Illinois, average $4.49 a member. These are 
good gifts. So are others that I have no time to 
enumerate. Our own giving, however, as I have 
already intimated, is not our only concern. We 
want that, but not that only. It is one of our aims 
to draw forth the gifts of the church. We want to 
educate our people along the line of giving. A 
church body of Baptist working people in Philadel- 
phia average $10.00 annually a member for mis- 
sions. When their pastor was asked to explain 
their ability to do it, he replied: "Oh, I make giving 
a part of their religion !" So does the Bible. The 
story shows two things — the influence of the pastor 
and the fact that when one wishes to give, the money 
somehow from somewhere will come. In connection 
with this, we want always to bear in mind that 
money is not our direct aim. Gifts are the natural 
accompaniment or result of a condition that we wish 
to bring about — a deep, abiding missionary spirit 
With this spirit in the church any of the numerous 
ways of raising money will work, without 



Appendix. 211 

it none will work to the best advantage. 
However, smoothly running machinery has its 
effect in making the engine go, even if it 
cannot take the place of steam power. So it is 
with the various expedients devised for raising 
money. We now have thank-offering boxes and 
self-denial envelopes for the Penny a Day Plan. A 
number of our auxiliaries use them. What a 
goodly sum we would realize were our auxiliaries 
to offer some receptacle for the operation of the 
Penny-a-Day Plan to all members of their respective 
congregations, the receptacles, whether boxes, envel- 
opes or home-made pouches to be returned in one 
month, three months, six months, or a year, as the 
society at each place saw fit. 

Missionary Reading. 

Books are often the making of men and women; 
the shortest story will sometimes influence an en- 
tire life-time — such is the power of literature. Re- 
alizing this, let us not rest until our little banner, 
Missionary Tidings, which is our chief dependence 
in circulating missionary reading, floats above ev- 
ery Unted Evangelical home. It is a great pleasure 
to learn of every one that has added to the list of 
subscribers. A number of our ladies secured ten 
new names each. I still believed as I believed a year 
ago, that each auxiliary, and more than that, each 
congregation should have an agent for Tidings. 
And I think that our branch organizations should 
feel it incumbent upon themselves to attend to this 



212 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

matter. They can ascertain the names of the dif- 
ferent charges, and, where we have no auxiliary, 
through the minister or someone else get the name 
of some suitable lady to act as agent. There might 
be a little difficulty where there are no auxiliaries, 
but the effort, I think, should be made and believe 
the results will be encouraging. These agents can 
also be repositories for our other forms of mission- 
ary literature and can call for subscriptions at mis- 
sionary rallies, and, elsewhere, as they have oppor- 
tunity to increase the list. The missionary banner 
that waves above our home, we want to have show 
the true missionary color and bear the watchwords 
of missions, and all that is done in the making of 
it we want to enhance its beauty and power. A few 
suggestions as to the management and control of 
Tidings may be helpful. It would be my plan to 
have but one editor and she is to have full responsi- 
bility. Only in this way I believe perfect unity in 
the paper can be preserved. I would wish, however, 
that the different Branch Organizations appoint 
regular correspondents to Tidings in behalf of their 
Woman's Auxiliaries, the Young People's Societies 
and the Children's Bands, who would give accounts 
from time to time of the work done within their 
conference limits. 

Many of you must have observed that missionary 
papers very generally insert advertisements. It is 
needless to remind you that advertisements increase 
the income of a paper. Shall we make an effort to 
get some. But a mention pf other missionary papers 
recalls the fact that there is a paper entitled Mis- 



Appendix. 213 

• 
sionary Tidings besides our own paper. Shall we 
again touch on the subject of changing the name of 
our paper. Just a word about the missionaries that 
go from among us and their relation to our paper. 
I suggest that a list of all under whatever mis- 
sion board they go or expect to go, be inserted prom- 
inently in Tidings, and that they be remembered 
particularly in our prayers. Also that Tidings be 
sent regularly to each of them, to be paid by the 
Woman's Missionary Society. Also that letters 
or other contributions on missionary topics be so- 
licited from them. 

Besides our paper, we have the reading furnished 
by our Bureau of Literature. I remember a few 
years ago being called to account by one of our 
ministers for our society not publishing literature 
of our own. It is a great pleasure to know that we 
can now point to quite a number of leaflets and 
tracts of our own writing, and also to know — al- 
though this pleasure is mixed with regret — that 
there are a number of articles that could be pub- 
lished if our funds warranted our doing so. One of 
the latest publications is the pamphlet entitled Hints 
and Helps, prepared by the Executive Committee 
to answer the questions that come up in our auxilia- 
ries as to the management of their societies and to be 
a guide generally for them. Our auxiliaries should 
not only get copies of this pamphlet but study them 
with care. Through the generosity of a friend, 
whose name by request is withheld, the Bureau 
this year was enabled to send out to every minister 
in the church a leaflet entitled The Pastor and Far- 



214 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

• 
eign Missions. This was a work worth doing. Of 
all our people, our ministers should be educated on 
missions. 

We do not wish to pass by the subject of Mis- 
sionary Reading without again mentioning the mis- 
sionary library of the auxiliary at Harrisburg. 
They have bought a number of good standard mis- 
sionary books. These books are not only invalu- 
able helps in the monthly study, but can take the 
form of a circulating library and thus reach some 
who do not come to the meetings. 

The Young Peopus. 

You will all agree with me, I think, that there is 
special importance attached to our work for the 
young. In them lie our hopes for the future. Our 
church now is not so filled with the missionary spirit 
as we would like to be. Educate the young people 
and the church of the future will be a great im- 
provement in this respect on that of the present. 
If we teach the young people now, in their later 
years they will be interested in missions and ac- 
customed to support them. Give the infant children 
Cradle Roll Certificates, as they grow up, 
put them into Mission Bands as you put them 
into Kindergartens, and from the Missionary Kin- 
dergarten let them advance step by step in mission- 
ary education and service until in their riper years 
they can continue training and knowledge with ma- 
turer ability and wisdom. Do not we often regret 
our lack of information on missionary subjects, our 



Appendix. 215 

want of drill in the work of the Woman's Mission- 
ary Society? Are our children to be under the 
same disadvantages that we are under? Are they 
not to be instructed when we have the means with 
which to instruct them? Some of them are almost 
ready to take our places, to come in and join with us. 
They are the all-important young people whom we 
must watch. If the boys and girls will be allowed 
to drift away from the missionary societies just as 
they are beginning to have wills and tastes of their 
own, and at the very eve of their becoming their 
own masters; if they will be neglected then it is 
more than likely that they will be led to occupations 
and interests other than missionary work, and the 
influence of the Mission Bands cannot be expected to 
be strong enough to hold them for us. Keep them 
at this critical, formative period, and we keep them, 
in all likelihood, for life. Our work for them is 
extremely important and has two special features. 
The first is our special interest, object in keeping the 
young people: they are making their decisions and 
choices now, in a large measure for life. When we 
get them, we are pretty certain of holding them. 
In the second place, this work with them must be 
handled carefully, in order to win them. Children 
will do things that do not specially attract them, 
because their parents tell them to ; grown people do 
uninteresting things from a sense of duty ; the young 
people somehow often do as they please, just as 
their fancy dictates. Now, we want our young peo- 
ple to fancy the missionary cause; and if we want 
that, we must have good work for them. Their 



216 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

monthly meeting should be such, that they will en- 
lighten on missioary topics the minds of all present. 
At the same time there should be variety in the 
presentation of the program from month to month, 
and always plenty of music. Give the young peo- 
ple, themselves, plenty to do on the program. At 
the missionary rallies they can assist greatly. I am 
glad for the organizations there have begun to be 
among our young people. A year from to-day may 
we be able to count many more, many many more 
Young People's Missionary Societies ! 

A little younger than these young people come 
the members of the Mission Bands who are learn- 
ing almost in babyhood the priceless lesson of think- 
ing of and doing for others. Dear little ones and 
your dear leader who for ten years has been faith- 
fully and lovingly watching over you and planning 
much for you, my heart and my hopes, are with 
you all. If our little ones will not grow up to a live 
missionary interest from where can we expect help 
to carry on the great work to which we look for- 
ward for our church, to what will our plans and 
present work come? How many Mission Band 
leaders have adopted as one of their means of en- 
larging their society, the recommendation of the 
Woman's Board of last year for a Mission Band 
birthday reception to the Sunday-schools of the 
church, where an explanation of the Band's work 
is given and new members received? Why not to 
that recommendation add the suggestion that an 
announcement be made at the reception about the 
Cradle Roll Certificates. The wee ones are coming 



Appendix. 217 

in and we want them to come in in larger and larger 
numbers. The idea of counting them as tiny mis- 
sionary workers is very beautiful, and will, I am 
sure, be of real help in developing in the children 
a missionary spirit. And ought not every member 
of the Wee Band have his or her name printed in 
the children's own paper, The Missionary Evan- 
gelical? 

Foreign Work. 

As eager as I am to launch out, as it were, upon 
this subject, I will detain myself just long enough 
to wonder whether or not our friends who are in- 
clined to regard us as "all for foreign ,, have ob- 
served that of one year's total receipts amounting to 
$6,630.50, or more than two-thirds have been ap- 
propriated to Home Mission work. Without fur- 
ther discussion on my part let these figures be the 
most convincing proof of our interest in Home 
Missions. 

Foreign work has long been our aim and ambi- 
tion. Somehow to-day we throb with a new hope, 
a present, a lively hope. We look for an opportuni- 
ty. Do we know just what sort of an opening we 
desire? Do we know just what sort of work we feel 
able to take upon ourselves ? Do we know whether 
or not we wish to take up the foreign work imme- 
diately ? Do we know where we wish to go — to Af- 
rica, Asia, Mexico, Brazil? Do we know just what 
we wish to do there ? Do we know our minds as to 
whether the church should work independently or 



218 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

whether it should work under the Board of another 
denomination? It will be well for us as a body to 
ponder these questions and to make a decision as 
far as possible on each of them, not because we 
imagine that the ultimate decision in regard to any 
one of them will rest with us. That we know lies 
with another body to which we are auxiliary, but 
because these questions have to do with our own 
work and should therefore be thoroughly under- 
stood and answered by us, and because we have a 
voice, whether very influential or not, in determining 
final judgment on them. 

The most vital of these questions is that relating 
to the independence as a church body in carrying 
on a foreign mission. Perhaps we may consider now 
a few of the more important considerations it in- 
volves. 

Working alone will mean independent and entire 
control of the mission and a direct extension of the 
United Evangelical Church, and it would also mean 
greater expense and increased difficulties in admin- 
istration. Working under some other Board will 
mean an economy of money and administrative dif- 
ficulty, and a sacrifice, at least to a degree, of our 
control of the mission, and of propagating our own 
church! Just how much would be sacrificed is a 
question. Mr. Barton thinks that under the Amer- 
ican Board, of which he is secretary, we would be 
able to take up a mission station, or perhaps more 
than one. The stationing of missionaries would be 
left to the Prudential Committee of the Board, but 
the missions to a large extent would be self-gov- 



Appendix, 219 

erning. Dr. Pierson, of the Missionary Review, 
thinks that with whatever body we would work, :f 
our support would warrant it, we could have a 
representative on the Board to voice our views. In 
any case we should have full credit for all converts 
made through our instrumentality. 

Now the question is : Which way will be the bet- 
ter for us as a church to pursue? Not what you 
and I will individually fancy, but what will further 
the evangelization of the world ? How shall we de- 
cide? 

Prayer and Missions. 

Let us, just as I am about to close, ponder rever- 
entially, as I read a few words from Andrew 
Murray's The Holy Spirit and Missions. 

"If our interest (in missions) is to be permanent 
and personal/' he says, "if it is to be a personal en- 
thusiasm of love and devotion to our blessed Lord 
and the lost he came to save, if it is to be fruitful 
in raising the work of the church to the true level 
of Pentecostal powers, we must learn well the lesson 
from Antioch. Mission work must find its initiative 
and its power in the distinct and direct acknowl- 
edgement of the guiadnce of the Holy Spirit. The 
origin, the progress, the success of missions are his. 
His who wakens in the hearts of all believers the 
jealousy for the honor of their Lord, the compas- 
sion to the souls of the perishing, the faith in his 
promise, the willing obedience to his commands, in 
which the mission takes its rise. 



220 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

Missions are the special work of the Holy Spirit 
No one may expect to be filled with the Spirit if he 
is not willing to be used for missions. No one who 
wishes to work or pray for missions need fear his 
feebleness or poverty : the Holy Spirit is the power 
that can fit him to take his divinely appointed place 
in the work. Let every one who prays for missions, 
and longs for more of a missionary spirit in the 
church, pray first and most that in every believer 
personally, and in the church and all its work and 
worship, the power of the indwelling Spirit may 

have full sway Blessed the church and blessed 

the mission which the Spirit originates, where he 
is allowed to guide, and where the blessing is waited 
for from himself alone. Ten days' praying and 
waiting on earth, and the Spirit's descent in fire: 
this was the brith of the Church at Jerusalem. Min- 
istering and fasting, and then again fasting and 
praying, and the Spirit sending forth Barnabas and 
Saul: this was at Antioch the consecration of the 
church to be a mission church. In waiting and 
prayer on earth, and then in the power of the Spirit 
from the Lord in heaven, is the strength, the joy, 
the blessing of the church of Christ and its mis- 



sions." 



Mrs. Elizabeth Krecker. 



Appendix. 221 

PRESIDENTS ANNUAL ADDRESS, 1902. 



Dear Women of the Woman's Board: 

Probably the desire of desires entertained in the 
hearts of the sisterhood of our Woman's Missionary 
Society is that the United Evangelical Church be 
a truly missionary church, permeated through and 
through with missionary zeal, giving largely and 
eagerly for the advancement of missions, and en- 
tering joyfully into the pleasures of missionary 
labors. 

The church that gives to missions, prays for mis- 
sions and labors for missions, is the church that is 
interested in missions. 

And the church that is interested is the church 
that knows about missions. A knowledge of mis- 
sionary enterprise is an unfailing stimulus in arous- 
ing missionary interest. 

Missions in their sundry phases are so fraught 
with all that appeals to our minds and hearts that 
it is almost universally the case that the church 
member who is conversant with their aims and 
achievements is certain to be their loyal supporter. 

Every year hundreds of lives are filled with in- 
spiration and enthusiasm through the careful study 
of missions. It is in these studies they learn of the 
great need in unevangelized lands and find the 
solid facts regarding missions. Without such 
knowledge none of us can feel appreciatively the ob- 
ligation to carry to all men the gospel of Christ. 

When we have educated the church in missions, 
we have laid the firm foundations for deep and per- 



222 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ennial missionary interest, not a spasmodic impul- 
siveness, not a capricious zeal, to-day white hot 
with ardor, to-morrow lukewarm; but a steady 
luminous flame fed by intelligent comprehension. 
How can the church be educated in missions? 
Those of you who have followed the proceedings 
of the Student Volunteer Convention at Toronto, 
may recall that six addresses were given there on 
the question of the missionary education of the 
home church, and that these treated of young peo- 
ple and children, the college and seminary, the 
press, the pulpit and the pastor. Through what 
mediums can a body like our own Woman's Mis- 
sionary Society reach the members, young and old, 
of our own beloved Zion? 

By our monthly meetings, our public meetings, 
our conventions, our literature. These are our reg- 
ular agencies for disseminating missionary knowl- 
edge. Further than this, we can find a sphere of 
influence in the church colleges, in the church Sun- 
day-schools, prayer-meetings and other services, our 
influence over the pastors and our personal 
influence, individually and collectively in the church 
communities whereof we are members. 

On some of these mediums let me dwell more 
particularly; first, on missionary reading matter 
which is weighty with power. "If the victory is 
won, and the victory will be won — it will not come 
as the result of some sudden and brilliant dash, but 
through the slow and calculating methods of the 
siege. The loving voice and personal influence al- 
ways have been and always will be the greatest 



Appendix. 223 

factors in the winning of the victory. But it is not 
always possible to bring together upon the strategic 

point that living voice and personal influence 

The printed page goes where personal influence is 
unfelt; it abides after the voice has ceased to 
speak." The missionary book informs the ignorant, 
convinces the skeptical, strengthens the fainthearted 
and arouses the indifferent to a sense of the world's 
need. 

A prominent New York publisher, we are told, 
states that he can trace the influence of missionary 
books of the past decade in the changing attitude 
of the public toward missions, and that the mission- 
ary literature of the past four or five years has 
served favorably to alter editorial opinion in re- 
spect to missions. Our Memorial Library, founded 
by Mrs. W. J. Gruhler, in its increasing popularity, 
is indicative of most far-reaching results. Al- 
together beyond calculation are the precious influ- 
ences which are diffused by these volumes in homes 
in town, village and country throughout our church 
limits which they have entered. 

Those who have read one of the books can be 
of much service by speaking of it to some one else 
who might be interested in it. Many a friend who 
would never think of picking up a "missionary 
book" as such, might find an intense interest in one 
of the many romantic and thrilling missionary sto- 
ries now published, which in the reading would cre- 
ate in them not only a feeling of sympathy for mis- 
sions, but a desire to help in the cause, — just be- 
cause the book was tactfully and entertainingly rec- 



224 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

ommended by some one who had read it. In the 
same way leaflets can be given to this or that per- 
son who is indifferent to missions, but who would 
find its subject matter a source of human interest 
and hence stimulation. Or the contents of a leaf- 
let can be remembered and repeated verbally to 
some one whom we think would find it entertaining. 

Mr. John W. Wood, at the Toronto Convention, 
said : "Ask the secretary of your Board to put your 
name on a list of those who receive every new leaflet 
as it is issued. If he has no such list ask him to 
start it and put your name at the top." 

We can apply to our Superintendent of Litera- 
ture. I have sent in my name. Possibly we have 
not read all the leaflets that have been catalogued 
in Tidings. If we will make the best possible use 
of this means of advancing the cause of missions 
we will witness telling results, I am confident. As 
the leaflets come in, study them in relation to the 
individual cases you come in contact with. 

In the libraries of our Sunday-schools we have 
another field for our missionary literature. I would 
recommend as a feature of the work of the Commit- 
tee on Literature, that they supervise an investi- 
gation of the Sunday-school libraries of the church 
and see what can be done to supply the libraries 
with missionary books. Each auxiliary could take 
its own library in charge, making a report of the 
conditions that obtain and what can be done to 
meet the need. A Sunday-school Library Evening- 
observed simultaneously throughout the Sunday- 
schools might not be a bad idea; an entertainment 



Appendix. 225 

with the collection or admission fees appropriated 
to the missionary Sunday-school books. 

Another center for missionary reading is the col- 
lege library. We want missionary books for the 
young people of our educational institutions. The 
young people in them are generally of an age 
when their future careers are problematic. The 
reading of missionary books, found in a college li- 
brary, may turn the attention of many a young wo- 
man or man to the needs of foreign mission fields 
for educated, capable young workers. 

Again at our colleges we find many young men ex- 
pecting to study for the ministry. Considering 
the weighty influence of the pastor in molding the 
opinions of his parishioners can we afford to let 
slip this opportunity of creating in their minds an 
attitude of sympathy and appreciation of the mis- 
sionary movement? 

Again it is sometimes not long after the closing 
of school days that students become husbands, 
wives, fathers, and mothers. The memory of a 
single powerful missionary book perused at their 
Alma Maters may imbue them with the lofty aim of 
infusing a missionary spirit into their families. 

Christian Endeavor Societies have arranged quar- 
terly missionary topics. Let us do our utmost to 
persuade them to take up our monthly studies and 
organize Young People's Missionary Societies, 

Let the Sunday-school be our next objective 

point. In speaking of missionary work among 

young people, Dr. Chivers, of Brooklyn, has said, 

"But we must begin further back. The founda- 

*5 



226 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

tion must be laid in our Sunday-schools. There 
must be a work of early seed-sowing. In my judg- 
ment the time has come when leaders in missioanry 
work must knock at the doors of the International 
Sunday-school Committee and at the doors of the 
Sunday-school Boards of our various denomina- 
tions and plead for systematic missionary instruc- 
tion in the Sunday-schools of the land. The mis- 
sionary concert once a year, with a collection taken 
at that time, will not suffice. A quarterly missionary 
exercise is inadequate to present the great subject 
of missions — the conditions and needs of the wide 
world and the story of missionary achievement. 
The time has come in my judgment when ihere 
ought to be a graded course of supplemented mis- 
sionary instruction in our Sunday-schools, and when 
a little time of each of its sessions be given to this 
work." 

What can we do to promote missionary instruc- 
tion in our own Sunday-schools? It is needless to 
wait for the International Sunday-school Commit- 
tee to prepare missionary lessons. Let us have a 
committee on missionary literature, consisting of 
the editor of Tidings, the editor of Missionary 
Evangelical, and the Superintendent of the Bureau 
of Literature, who could prepare or supervise the 
preparation of brief lessons and publish them in 
Tidings or elsewhere as appropriate and place them 
before our Sunday-school superintendents and 
workers. We can do it. Let us do it. 

In addition to missionary books in our colleges, 
let us work for definite missionary training for the 



Appendix. 227 

students. Where there are none such why not have 
a missionary study class, meeting regularly once a 
week under the direction of some proper leader? 
This matter may be put in the charge of the re- 
spective conference Branches in whose territory the 
colleges exist. 

The question of missionary education through 
the medium of the pulpit, the church mid-week 
service and public prayer has frequently been 
brought in one form or another before the Woman^s 
Board. I am convinced that each one of us feels 
an increasing certainty that the pastor's interest tn 
missions is of paramount importance in the further- 
ance of our work and of the missionary education 
of the church. A pastor cannot be afire with mis- 
sionary zeal without sooner or later kindling enthu- 
siasm among his congregation. Happily the num- 
ber of wholly or partially indifferent clergy is con- 
stantly on the decrease. Let us aim to awaken all 
to a sense of the influence they can exert by the 
mention of missions in the pulpit in sermons and 
in prayer. 

Cannot we use our influence for quarterly or 
monthly missionary sermons on fixed dates through- 
out the church and make it our concern to suggest 
topics for the sermons and publish suggestive ma- 
terial in the Tidings at the proper time ? Some one 
of our own number or some "missionary minded 
minister" might be glad to attend to the matter for 
Tidings. 

There are many women who feel that they can- 
not leave home to attend the Woman's Missionary 



228 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

meetings and hence do not become members of the 
local auxiliaries. In order to meet their needs for 
missionary education and to secure them as mem- 
bers of the society, I would recommend a Home 
Department of the Woman's Missionary Society. Let 
such women, as I have mentioned, be admitted as 
members and be provided with the literature used 
at the monthly meetings. Each member of the 
Home Department would agree to lay aside regu- 
lar monthly dues and spend a specified amount of 
time in every month in reading missionary literature, 
following out the programs published in Tidings. 
Another suggestion that has come to me is for 
Penny and Prayer Bands. A cent a day, half a 
cent a day, two cents a week, as each may wish laid 
aside regularly with a prayer for missions. Such 
bands may be formed anywhere, inside and outside 
the Woman's Missionary Society, without officers 
or meetings, with one member appointed to collect 
the money and to keep the names of the band and 
report funds to the Woman's Missionary Society 
recording secretary. 

Milestones oe Past Year's Progress. 

When considering the milestones of missionary 
progress passed by the church during the past year, 
we instinctively turn first to the conditions that 
obtain in China. 

There is something inspiring in the thought of 
having begun our foreign mission at the opening 
of the twentieth century, at a time when there are 



Appendix. 229 

openings, opportunities and privileges such as nev- 
er before existed. 

Our missionaries have really begun gospel work. 
By means of the kodak and the kind thought fulness 
of our dear missionaries, all the readers of Tidings 
have had a view of the inside of the chapel which 
has been formally opened. And in imagination we 
can see those backless seats filled with the tawny 
Chinese. But what is of far greater interest is the 
fact that priceless souls are being told the sweet 
story of old, of Jesus and his love. 

It seems to me we ought to hold a prayer and 
praise meeting especially to thank God for the prog- 
ress our missionaries have been able to make, and 
for his protecting care. 

Surely the church does not intend to leave the 
support of the mission rest upon the Woman's Mis- 
sionary Society. It will without doubt put forth 
efforts to do its part of the supporting, but that is 
no reason why we should not work as hard as ever 
to increase the interest in our foreign mission. Let 
us labor as we never did before. 

Among other encouraging marks of progress let 
us recall the fact that all our conferences are now 
organized and that the Branch conventions were en- 
thusiastic and evinced forward movement all along 
the line. 

In order that we may enter upon all practicable 
plans with enthusiasm, let us ever remember that: 
"Because of the infinite need of men without Christ ; 
because of the possibilities of men of every race and 
condition who take Christ as the Lord of their lives ; 



230 Beautiful Life of Mrs. Krecker. 

because of the command of our Lord which has ac- 
quired added force as a result of nineteen centuries 
of discovery, of opening of doors, of experience of 
the Christian Church ; because of the shameful neg- 
lect of the past; because of the impending crisis and 
the urgency of the situation in all parts of the non- 
Christian world; because of the opportunity for a 
greatly accelerated movement in the present; be- 
cause of the danger of neglecting to enter upon a 
great onward movement; because of the constrain- 
ing memories of the cross of Christ and the love 
wherewith he loved us, it is the solemn duty of the 
Christians of this generation to do their utmost to 
evangelize the world. And let us pray with another : 

"Give me Thy heart O Christ! Thy love untold 
That I like thee may pity, like Thee may preach, 
For round me spreads on every side a waste, 
Drearer than that which moved Thy soul to sadness; 
No ray hath pierced this immemorial gloom; 
And scarce these darkened toiling myriads taste 
Even a few drops of fleeting earthly gladness, 
As they move on, slow, silent, to the tomb." 

Euzabeth Krecker. 



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